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LA  JOLLA.  CALIFORNIA 


SECRET   MEMOIRS 


OF    THE 


COURTS  OF   EUROPE 

FROM    THE 

16TH  TO  THE  19TH  CENTURY 

*    * 

VOLUME   XI 


THIS    EDITION.    PRINTED    ON    JAPANESE    VELLUM    PAPER 

IS    LIMITED    TO 

ONE   THOUSAND    NUMBERED    COPIES 

NO 1- 


^tcxtt  iHrmoirs 


MEMOIRS    OF  THE    COURT   OF   AUSTRIA 


VOLUME  1 


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Courts  oi  (Bxixopt 


MEMOIRS 


OF    THE 


COURT    OF   AUSTRIA 

Dr.    E.'VEHSE^   I2ö^'/2f^. 


VOL.  1 


Itlluötratetr 


PHILADELPHIA 
GEORGE    BARRIE    &   SON       PUBLISHERS 


PREFACE 


The  "  Memoirs  of  the  Court  of  Austria  "  are  the  English 
version  of  the  corresponding  part  of  the  series  published  by 
Dr.  E.  Vehse  under  the  title  of  "  History  of  the  German 
Courts  since  the  Reformation."  The  author,  in  speaking  of 
the  character  which  he  wished  to  impart  to  his  work,  quotes 
the  saying  of  Horace  Walpole  :  "  I  am  no  historian ;  I  draw 
characters,  I  preserve  anecdotes,  which  my  superiors,  the  his- 
torians, may  enchase  into  their  weighty  annals,  or  pass  over 
at  their  pleasure."  Whilst,  however,  protesting  against  the 
pedantry  of  the  learned  writers  of  history,  who,  notwithstand- 
ing their  profound  erudition,  only  too  frequently  fall  into  the 
traps  of  those /aW^5  convenues  with  which  their  path  is  beset  on 
all  sides,  he  lays  claim  to  the  merit  of  having  studiously 
drawn,  not  from  the  books  of  theoretical  historians,  but  from 
those  sources  which  men  experienced  in  the  ways  of  the  world 
and  in  the  conduct  of  affairs  have  left  to  us.  "Writing,"  he 
continues,  "  for  Germans  (who  are  so  very  particular  concern- 
ing literary  authorities)  I  used  the  caution  of  giving  from  those 
sources  the  verba  ipsissima  of  contemporaneous  narratives.  If 
a  writer  does  that,  and  if  .it  is  acknowledged  on  all  sides  that 
he  has  written  conscientiously  and  impartially,  he  ought  not 
to  be  expected  to  quote  for  every  little  fact  the  source  or  book 
from  which  he  may  have  taken  it.  He  who  does  not  falsify 
history  in  its  great  features  will  surely  not  invent  the  lesser 
ones  ;  and  he  may  fairly  be  supposed  to  have  taken  the  latter 
from  hundreds  and  hundreds  of  books  which  he  read  for  his 
purpose,  and  many  a  one  of  which  did  not  yield  him  more 
than  perhaps  one  little  item.     If  it  were  requisite  to  make  a 


X  PREFACE 

display  of  my  preparatory  studies  (during  twelve  years),  I 
might  furnish  a  list  of  books,  the  titles  of  which  would  rather 
surprise  even  very  great  men  of  the  republic  of  letters.  I  was 
always  quite  satisfied  only  to  find  some  small  trait ;  but  how 
many  were  the  books  which  I  had  to  read  without  any  re- 
munerating result  whatever !  " 

The  principal  authorities  are  mentioned  occasionally 
throughout  the  book.  It  will  not  however  be  deemed  out 
of  place  here  to  say  a  few  words  on  three  of  the  writers  whom 
Dr.  Vehse  has  most  frequently  quoted.  The  following  notices 
are  taken  from  various  parts  of  the  work. 

Count  Francis  Christopher  Khevenhüller,  born  in  1589, 
was  since  1616,  for  an  aggregate  period  of  fourteen  years, 
under  three  Emperors,  Matthias,  Ferdinand  II.,  and  Ferdi- 
nand III.,  ambassador  ordinary  and  extraordinary  at  Madrid. 
There  he  was  made  a  knight  of  the  Golden  Fleece.     He  had 
likewise  some  diplomatic  missions  to  Florence,  Turin,  and 
Mantua  ;  to  the  court  of  Paris  ;  to  Archduke  Albert  at  Brus- 
sels ;   to  the  courts  of  the  three  spiritual  Electors ;   and  to 
Munich.     Khevenhüller  was  one  of  the  first  gallants  at  court, 
but  withal  one  of  the  most  learned  nobles  and  most  able  men 
of  business  in  the  whole  monarchy.     Like  Sir  Christopher 
Hatten,  he  was  celebrated  for  his  skill  in  dancing,  and,  more- 
Dver,  for  his  horsemanship.    Much  greater  fame,  however,  was 
gained  for  him  by  the  records  of  his  life  so  rich  in  experience. 
His  Annates  Ferdinandei  are  the  most  important  of  all  German 
works  of  history  from  the  Reformation  down  to  Frederic  the 
Great.     He  published  them  after  his  return  from  Spain,  in 
1 640-1 646,  at  Ratisbon,  in  an  edition  of  not  more  than  forty 
copies,  intended  for  "  great  lords,"  among  whom  they  were 
distributed.    It  is  a  work  similar  to  that  which  De  Thou  wrote 
for  France — a  contemporaneous  history  of  all  the  European 
states,  in  which  he  himself  had  been  an  important  actor.    The 
work  had  been  calculated  to  fill  twelve  folios,  of  which  nine 
only  were  published  at  the  time.     When  his  heirs  wished  to 
publish  a  new  and  complete  edition,  permission  was  refused 
by  Leopold  I. ;  in  1721  Charles  VI.  at  last  granted  it.     The 
Annals  comprise  the  period  from  the  birth  of  Ferdinand  II.,  in 
1578,  to  his  death  in  1637.    They  contain  the  most  varied  and 


PREFACE  Xi 

important  state  papers,  resolutions,  despatches,  relations,  and 
such  like.^ 

Elizabeth  Charlotte  Duchess  of  Orleans,  born  in  1652,  was 
the  daughter  of  Charles  Louis,  Elector  Palatine,  and  grand- 
daughter of  the  "  Winter  King  "  of  Bohemia.  Having  mar- 
ried, in  1671,  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  brother  of  Louis  XIV.,  she 
became  a  widow  in  1701,  and  died,  in  1722,  as  the  mother  of 
the  notorious  Regent.  Although  unfortunately  ugly,  she  kept 
her  own  at  the  French  court  by  her  strong  sense  and  by  her 
powers  of  mind  ;  even  Louis  XIV.  did  not  disdain  to  consult 
her,  not  only  in  affairs  of  the  royal  family,  but  also  in  those  of 
the  state.  Her  father  lived  in  morganatic  marriage — in  his 
case  a  specious  term  for  bigamy — with  a  Countess  Degenfeldt. 
Most  of  the  letters  of  the  Duchess  were  written  to  a  half-sister 
of  hers  by  that  morganatic  union,  and  the  correspondence 
passed  to  the  family  archives  of  the  Counts  Degenfeldt  at 
Eibach  in  Würtemberg,  from  which  it  was  published  by 
Wolfgang  Menzel.  The  collection,  as  far  as  printed  until 
now  (1853),  comprises  the  correspondence  with  that  half-sister 
Louisa,  and  with  Caroline  of  Anspach,  the  Queen  of  George 
II.  The  letters  are  most  remarkable  for  their  plain-spoken 
naivete,  and  for  the  unconcern  with  which  the  writer  does  not 
shrink  from  telling  everything.  The  most  hidden  secrets  of  the 
German  courts  (and  also  of  the  court  of  William  III.  of  Eng- 
land) are  laid  bare  in  them. 

Joseph  von  Hormayr,  bocn  in  1782  in  the  Tyrol,  was 
descended  from  an  ancient  Tyrolese  family,  which  became 
extinct  at  his  death.  He  was  an  extraordinary  character  from 
a  child,  and  he  published  his  first  book  at  the  age  of  twelve. 
His  memory  was  truly  wonderful,  such  as  has  been  possessed 
only  by  a  very  few  learned  men,  by  Julius  Scaliger  or  Pico  de 
Mirandola.  He  would,  for  instance,  repeat  in  order  the  names 
of  a  collection  of  9,000  portraits  in  the  possession  of  his  father  ; 
he  knew  by  heart  some  hundreds  of  dramas  and  ten  or  twelve 
thousand  verses  from  the  classics  of  all  nations  ;  he,  moreover, 
was  able  to  recite  the  first  three  books  of  the  ^neid,  not 
only  straight  on,  but  also  backwards.    With  equal  facility  he 

1  Count  Khevenhiiller  died  in  1650,  at  Baden  near  Vienna,  as  gover 
nor  of  Croatia. 


XU  PREFACE 

retained  names,  dates  and  numbers ;  he  had  a  very  keen  eye  in 
discerning  handwritings  and  physiognomies,  and  after  any 
length  of  time  he  would  most  accurately  recognise  and  iden- 
tify them  again.  Having  entered  the  Austrian  public  service 
in  1797,  he  became,  in  1803,  director  of  the  imperial  family 
and  state  archives,  which  post  he  held  upwards  of  twenty- 
five  years.  In  1828  King  Louis  of  Bavaria  called  him  into 
his  service.  In  1832  he  became  Bavarian  minister  at  Han- 
over, then  at  Bremen  ;  after  which  he  returned  to  Munich  as 
director  of  the  archives  and  councillor  of  state.  He  lived  to 
see  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution  of  1848,  in  which  year  he 
died.  Hormayr,  besides  his  eminent  natural  talents,  had  the 
advantage  of  his  position  as  keeper  of  the  Vienna  archives — 
perhaps  the  richest  in  the  world — and  moreover  of  his  per- 
sonal and  intimate  acquaintance  with  the  most  distinguished 
persons  of  the  highest  society  in  the  imperial  capital.  His 
views  of  the  duties  of  the  historian  he  laid  down  when  answer- 
ing the  reproach  of  indiscretion  which  was  made  to  him,  by 
quoting  the  saying  of  Cicero  :  "  Prima  historic  lex  est,  ne  quid 
falsi  diceve  audcat,  ne  quid  veri  non  audeat."  Even  Count  Mailath, 
Hormayr's  most  bitter  opponent,  is  obliged  himself  to  con- 
firm many  of  his  statements. 

F.  D. 


CONTENTS    OF    VOL.    I 


CHAPTER    I 
Maximilian  I. — (1493-1519)- 

PAGE 

I.— His  parentage  and  character — The  "  Felix  Austria  Nube  "  ,  .  i 
2. — The  Emperor  Maximilian's  family         ......    24 

CHAPTER   II 

Charles  V. — (1519-1556). 

I. — His  youth  and  education  in  the  Netherlands  .  .  .  .30 
2. — Accession  in  the  Netherlands  and   in    Spain,   and   election  as 

Emperor 39 

3. — The  French  wars — Battle  of  Pavia — Assault  of  Rome — Challenge 

between  Charles  and  Francis  I. — Siege  of  Vienna  by  the  Turks 

in  1529 45 

4. — The  Sickingen  Feud  and  the  Peasants'  War  .        .        .        .65 

5. — The  Diet  of  Augsburg,  and  the  French   wars  to  the  Peace  of 

Crespy.  1544 83 

6. — The  Smalcalde  war — Battle  of  Mühlberg 97 

7. — Maurice's  expedition  against  Charles 114 

8. — Resignation  of  Charles  V. — His  death  in  Spain    ....  147 

9. — Personal  notices  of  Charles  V 154 

10. — The  family  of  Charles  V 171 

CHAPTER   III 

Ferdinand    I. — (1556-1564), 

I. — Personal  notice  of  the  Emperor 176 

2. — Position  of  the  nobility  under  Ferdinand  I.  in  Austria — The  first 

Protestant  "  chain  of  the  nobles  " 17g 

3. — Ferdinand's  family — Philippina  Welser  and  her  children     ,        .  186 

CHAPTER   IV 

Maximilian  II. — (1564-1576). 

I. — Personal  notices  of  the  Emperor 193 

2. — State  of  religion — The  army — The  Austrian  nobility  is  made,  by 

the  matriculation  of  1572,  a  close  corporation     ....  195 
3. — The  family  of  the  Emperor  Maximilian  II 201 


Xiv  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER    V 
RODOLPH    II. — (1576-1612). 

PAGE 

I. His  court  at  Prague — His  antiquarian,  alchemical,   and   magic 

hobbies 204 

2.— The  ItaHans  at  the  imperial  court— First  beginnings  of  military 

rule — The  first  camarilla  of  clerks  and  valets      ....  213 

3. — Reformation  and  counter-reformation  in  Austria  ....  220 

4.— State  of  Hungary— The  Bohemian  "Royal  Letter  "—Rupture 
with  Matthias — Deposition  of  Rodolph — Latter  days  and  death 
of  Rodolph  II 228 

5. — Rodolph's  natural  children 235 

CHAPTER    VI 

Matthias — (1612-1619). 

I. — Personal  notices  of  the  Emperor 237 

2. — The  Thirty  Years'  War — "  Defenestratio  Pragensis" — Charac- 
teristics of  the  actors  in  it 240 

3. — Downfall  of  Cardinal  Clesel — Death  of  Matthias  ....  246 

CHAPTER   VII 
Ferdinand  II. — (1619-1637). 

I. — Personal  notices  of  the  Emperor — The  three  steins  (stones),  the 

three  i^yg's  (mounts),  and  the  io>/ (thorp) 252 

2. — Count  Thurn  before  Vienna  —  "  Nandy,"  Thonradl,  and  Dam- 
pierre's  cuirassiers  in  the  Hofburg — Election  of  Ferdinand  as 
Emperor  of  the  Romans,  and  of  the  Elector  Palatine  Frederic 
as  King  of  Bohemia 260 

3. — Frederic's  hopeless  situation  at  Prague — The  Bohemian  aristo- 
cracy, and  Calvinist  outrages 267 

4. — The  expedition  of  Tilly  and  of  the  Duke  of  Bavaria  to  Bohemia 
— The  battle  of  the  White  Mountain,  and  the  executions  in  the 
Ring  at  Prague 273 

5. — The  new  Catholic  aristocracy  of  Austria,  and  the  great  creation 

of  Counts  and  Princes 292 

6. — The  Protestant  partisans,  Mansfeld,  Brunswick,  &c.     .        .         .  294 

7. — Wallenstein  and  his  plans  for  the  establishment  of  the  absolute 

sovereignty  of  the  Emperor 300 

8. — Gustavus  Adolphus  of  Sweden  and  the  battles  of  Breitenfeld  and 

Lützcn — Wallenstein  generalissimo  "in  absolutissimä  forma  "  .  321 

Q. — Wallcnstcin's  downfall — Rewards  bestowed  on  his  betrayers 
and    murderers — Piccolomini,    Aldringer,    Colloredo,    Butler, 

I^slie,  &c 352 

JO. — Duke  Bernard  of  Weimar 378 

II.— Death  of  Ferdinand  II.— His  family 385 


CONTENTS  XV 

CHAPTER    VIII 
Ferdinand  III. — (1637-1657). 

PAGE 

I. — Personal  notices  of  the  Emperor — The  premier  Maximilian  von 

Trautmannsdorf 38S 

2. — The  last  period  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  and  the  last  Papist 
generals  of  the  Emperor,  Gallas  and  Piccolomini — The  last 
Protestant  generals  of  the  Emperor,  Hoik,  Götz,  and  Melander 
— Holzapfel — Austrian  plans  for  seducing  the  Hessian  and 
Bavarian  armies — Baner's  and  Torstensohn's  campaigns         .  390 

3. — The  peace  of  Westphalia  and  the  new  position  of  the  imperial 
court  with  regard  to  the  German  princes  and  to  the  aristocracy 
in  the  Austrian  dominions  ........  408 

4. — Diet  of  Ratisbon — Death  of  Ferdinand  III. — His  family      .        .  417 

CHAPTER  IX 

Leopold  I. — (1657-1705). 

I. — The  election  of  the  Emperor  at  Frankfort     .....  420 
2. — Leopold's  ministers  :  Portia,  Auersperg,  Lobkowitz,  Montecuculi, 

Sinzendorf,  Lamberg,  Schwartzenberg,  Hocher,  &c. .         .         .  425 
3. — Wedding   festivities  at   the  marriage  of  Leopold   I.   with  the 
Spanish  Infanta,  1666 — The  great  equestrian  ballet  during  the 
carnival  of  1667 440 


MEMOIRS 

OF 

THE    COURT    OF   AUSTRIA 


CHAPTER   I 

Maximilian  I. — (1493-1519). 

1. — His  parentage  and  character — The  '^  Felix  Austria  Nube." 

The  founder  of  the  Austrian  monarchy  as  a  European 
power  was  the  Emperor  MaximiHan  I.  Rodolph  of  Habsburg, 
the  first  of  the  dynasty,  had  laid  the  foundation  of  the  family 
estate  of  the  house  of  Austria ;  under  Maximilian  it  was,  by 
three  fortunate  marriages,  raised  to  the  rank  of  the  first 
empire  of  the  civilised  world.  Rodolph  of  Habsburg  was 
possessed  only  of  the  dukedom  of  Austria  with  its  capital 
Vienna,  and  of  the  two  Alpine  countries,  Styria  and  Carniola. 
In  the  course  of  the  fourteenth  century,  the  third  Alpine 
country,  Carinthia,  and  the  fourth  and  most  important  one, 
Tyrol,  besides  Austria  beyond  the  Inn,  and  the  possessions  in 
Swabia  and  Alsace,  were  added.  Maximilian  afterwards 
acquired,  towards  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century,  the  rich 
Burgundian  Netherlands,  and,  moreover,  the  vast  Spanish 
monarchy ;  and,  lastly,  secured  to  his  House,  by  the  act  of 
settlement  concluded  at  Vienna  in  the  year  1515,  the  eventual 
acquisition  of  the  two  crowns,  the  Magyaric  of  Hungary  and 
the  Sclavonic  of  Bohemia. 

An  organised  and  permanent  court  did  not  exist  at  Vienna 
under  Maximilian.  His  immediate  successor  (Charles  V.) 
mostly  resided  in  Spain  and  the  Netherlands,  the  following 

VOL.    I  I 


2  MAXIMILIAN    I. 

Emperors  alternately  at  Prague  and  Vienna.  Rodolph  II. 
remained  constantly  at  Prague,  and  never  once,  as  Emperor, 
entered  Vienna.  It  was  not  until  the  Thirty  Years'  War, 
under  Matthias,  and  especially  under  Ferdinand  II.,  that 
Vienna  became  the  fixed  and  ordinary  residence  of  the 
Austrian  monarchs. 

Maximilian  was  the  son  of  the  pompous,  pedantic  Emperor 
Frederic  1 11.,^  who  had  lost  a  leg,  and  who  died  of  a  surfeit 
of  melons  in  1493,  at  the  age  of  eighty-eight.  His  mother 
was  the  beautiful  and  lively  Eleanor  of  Portugal.  He  was 
born  in  1458,  became  Emperor  at  the  age  of  thirty-five,  and 
reigned  during  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century,  from  1493  to 
1519.  His  mother  he  lost  when  a  boy;  at  the  time  of  her 
death  she  had  scarcely  completed  her  thirtieth  year. 

In  childhood,  Maximilian  gave  but  little  promise.  He 
was  five  years  old  before  he  learned  to  speak  even  a  few 
words.  Until  his  twelfth  year  he  was  tongue-tied,  so  that 
most  people  considered  him  an  idiot.  After  that  time,  how- 
ever, his  mind  expanded  with  singular  quickness ;  not,  indeed, 
by  the  study  of  theology,  medicine,  and  the  black  art,  in 
which  his  father  caused  him  to  be  instructed,  but  by  the 
reading  of  knightly  adventures  and  of  the  chronicles,  as 
well  as  by  the  study  of  what  was  then  called  the  science  of 
mining ;  of  war  and  artillery  ;  and  of  architecture,  painting, 
and  music ;  towards  which  pleasanter  pursuits  he  was  drawn 
by  the  natural  bent  of  his  own  disposition.  He  inherited 
the  lively  temperament  of  his  mother.  Even  as  a  youth  he 
would,  like  a  keen  sportsman,  range  the  fields  and  woods, 
and  cross  over  precipices  and  glaciers,  hunting  the  wild 
goat,  or  in  search  of  adventures  such  as  the  whole  of  his 
life  was  replete  with.  He  became  one  of  the  boldest 
chamois  hunters,  as  well  as  one  of  the  most  gallant  lovers 
of  the  fair  sex. 

At  the  age  of  nineteen  he  hastened  to  the  Netherlands 
to  marry  the  beautiful  Mary  of  LJurgundy,  the  richest  heiress 

^  Sometimes  named  Frcleric  IV.,  as  Frederic,  son  of  Albert  I.,  was 
chosen  in  1314,  but  was  taken  prisoner  by  the  other  candidate,  Louis  of 
LJavaria,  and  then  renounced  his  claim. 


HIS     FIRST     MARRIAGE  3 

in  Europe,  the  only  daughter  of  the  Duke  Charles  the  Bold, 
who  fell  in  the  battle  of  Nancy  against  the  united  hosts  of 
the  Swiss  and  of  the  Duke  of  Lorraine. 

Mary  chose  Maximilian  from  among  twelve  suitors  who 
aspired  to  the  rich  prize  of  her  beauty  and  of  her  boundless 
wealth.  The  States  of  the  Netherlands  had,  after  the  death 
of  Duke  Charles,  wished  her  to  marry  the  Dauphin,  after- 
wards King  Charles  VIII.  of  France  ;  but  an  embassy  arrived 
from  the  Emperor  Frederic,  exhibiting  a  letter  and  a  ring 
which  Mary,  with  the  consent  of  her  father,  had  sent  to 
Maximilian.  This  prince  was  considered  the  handsomest 
youth  of  his  time;  at  all  events,  such  was  Mary's  opinion 
of  him.  The  repute  of  extraordinary  manliness  preceded 
him,  and  'he  was  the  son  of  the  monarch  who  sat  on  the 
first  throne  of  Christendom.  Mary  had  either  made  his 
acquaintance  at  a  former  interview,  or,  as  is  stated  by 
others,  had  only  seen  his  likeness  and  ever  since  felt  an 
affection  for  him.  She  therefore  now  declared  openly  and 
frankly  that  "  him  she  had  chosen  in  her  heart,  and  him 
she  would  have  for  her  spouse  and  no  other."  Mary's 
stepmother,  Margaret  of  York,  the  third  and  last  wife  of 
Charles  the  Bold,  sent  to  the  son  of  Cassar  100,000  guilders 
to  assist  his  straitened  finances.  Maximilian  thereupon  made 
a  splendid  entry  into  Ghent,  clad  in  silver-gilt  armour,  and 
riding  on  a  magnificent  brown  charger;  instead  of  a  helmet 
he  wore  round  his  golden  locks  a  precious  wedding  garland 
of  pearls  and  costly  jewels  ;  his  retinue  were  electors,  princes, 
bishops,  and  six  hundred  noble  lords.  Having  alighted  at 
his  quarters,  he  received  a  message  from  the  Princess,  who 
sent  to  welcome  him  and  to  invite  him  to  her.  After  supper, 
therefore,  Maximilian  rode  by  torchlight  to  her  palace,  and 
Mary  went  to  meet  him.  When  they  came  in  sight  of  each 
other,  they  both  knelt  down  in  the  open  street,  and  then 
fell  into  each  other's  arms,  Mary  calling  out,  with  tears  in 
her  eyes,  "  Be  welcome  to  me,  thou  scion  of  the  noble 
German  stock,  whom  I  have  so  long  wished  to  see,  and 
whom  I  am  now  rejoiced  to  meet."  On  the  third  day  follow- 
ing (19th  of  August,  1477)  the  marriage  was  celebrated. 

I — 2 


4  MAXIMILIAN     I. 

But  this  happy  union  lasted  no  more  than  four  years 
and  a  half.  Mary  had  borne  to  her  lord  a  son,  Philip, 
who  afterwards  became  the  heir  of  the  Spanish  monarchy, 
and  a  daughter,  Margaret.  She  was  far  advanced  in  preg- 
nancy with  a  third  child,  when,  being  out  hawking,  she  was 
thrown  from  her  horse,  which,  falling  upon  her  and  crushing 
her  against  the  stump  of  a  tree,  injured  her  most  severely. 
From  feelings  of  delicacy  she  concealed  this  until  it  was  too 
late  for  medical  aid,  and  she  died  (i6th  of  March,  1482)  at  the 
age  of  twenty-five,  in  the  bloom  of  her  years..  *'  Never,  as 
long  as  I  live,  shall  I  forget  this  bonny  wife  of  mine," 
were  the  words  with  which  Maximilian  parted  from  her 
corpse. 

After  Mary's  death  the  whole  country  broke  out  in  open 
rebellion.  Maximilian,  who  in  his  Habsburg  dominions  used 
to  respect  none  but  the  clergy  and  the  nobles  of  the  land, 
was  utterly  amazed  at  the  extraordinary  liberty  of  the  Flemish 
burghers  in  their  large,  industrious,  and  wealthy  cities.  He 
had  not  succeeded  in  making  himself  popular  with  the  sturdy 
Netherlanders,  who  were  by  no  means  inclined  to  bow  down 
before  him,  and  whom  he,  on  his  part,  treated  with  genuine 
Austrian  harshness  and  superciliousness.  The  mercenaries 
of  MaximiUan's  body-guard  especially  had  committed  many 
acts  of  insolence  and  oppression.  A  rebellion  broke  out  in 
Ghent.  Maximilian  put  it  down  by  means  of  executions. 
He  then  left  that  city  to  reside  at  Bruges.  It  was  in  vain 
that  his  jester,  Conrad  von  der  Rosen,  warned  him  not  to 
allow  himself  to  be  caught  there.  His  mercenaries  were  one 
day  drilling  in  the  market-place  of  Bruges.  On  the  captain's 
giving  the  German  word  of  command  ^^ Steht"  (Halt),  the 
bystanders  mistook  it  for  the  Flemish  "  Slat "  (Slay),  and  the 
mercenaries  having  at  the  same  time  lowered  their  lances, 
the  citizens,  believing  that  they  were  going  to  be  attacked, 
marched  under  the  fifty-two  banners  of  their  several  guilds  to 
the  market-place,  disarmed  the  troops,  and  put  Maximilian 
and  his  councillors  in  durance  vile  (5th  of  February,  1488). 
This  captivity  lasted  four  months.  Conrad  von  der  Rosen 
made  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  rescue   his   royal   master. 


CAPTIVITY    AT     BRUGES  5 

He  plunged  at  night  with  two  swimming  belts,  one  for  himself 
and  another  for  Maximilian,  into  the  ditch  of  the  castle  of 
Bruges,  where  the  illustrious  prisoner  was  confined  ;  but  the 
swans  attacked  the  faithful  jester  and  drove  him  back  with 
their  wings.  The  Emperor  Frederic  was  at  last  obliged  to 
send  an  imperial  army  to  liberate  his  captive  son  ;  after 
which  Maximilian  again  had  forty  of  the  most  stiff-necked 
burghers  of  Bruges  put  to  death. 

Maximilian,  when  a  prisoner  at  Bruges,  had  been  for  two 
years  the  Roman  King  elect.  He  held  the  Regency  in  the 
Netherlands  as  guardian  of  his  son  Philip  until  1494,  when 
the  Prince,  having  completed  his  sixteenth  year,  undertook 
the  government  himself.  Since  1490,  however,  Maximilian 
resided  principally  in  the  Tyrol,  where  Sigismund,  a  cousin  of 
his  of  a  younger  branch  of  his  family,  ruled.  This  Prince  was 
first  married  to  a  daughter  of  James  I.  of  Scotland,  and  after- 
wards to  a  daughter  of  the  founder  of  the  Albertine  line  of 
Saxony,  both  of  which  unions  were  without  issue.  He  was  a 
very  weak-minded  and  profligate,  but  withal  tyrannical  and 
most  eccentric,  personage,  and  the  laughing-stock  of  his 
servants,  who  led  him  at  pleasure  by  contriving  to  make 
mysterious  voices,  as  of  ghosts,  speak  to  him  from  the  stoves 
and  roofs,  and  other  quite  extraordinary  places.  Maximilian 
at  last,  with  the  consent  of  the  States,  forced  him,  in  1490,  to 
resign;  and  the  crazy  old  prince  was  confined  to  twelve 
castles  which  he  reserved  to  himself,  and  seven  of  which  he 
called  by  his  own  name,  as  for  instance,  Sigismundsburg, 
Sigismundskron,  &c.  At  these  castles  he  passed  his  time  in 
the  pleasures  of  the  chase  and  in  angling,  till  his  death  in 
1496,  when  the  Tyrol  was  re-united  by  the  lucky  heir  Maxi- 
milian with  the  family  possessions  of  the  House  of  Habsburg. 

The  Tyrol  became  the  favourite  abode  of  Maximilian. 
The  Habsburgers  had  for  many  years  called  it  "the  heart 
and  the  shield  of  their  house."  And,  indeed,  its  position 
made  it  a  most  important  political  link  in  the  dominions  of 
Austria.  It  was  coterminous  with  the  powerful  republic  of 
Venice,  which,  like  France,  was  one  of  the  principal  rivals  of 
Habsburg  ;  and,  moreover,  with  the  Swiss  Republic,  which 


MAXIMILIAN     I. 


had  wrested  its  liberty  from  its  Austrian  rulers.  Too  heavy 
a  yoke  might  have  driven  the  Tyrolese  into  the  arms  of  either 
of  these  two  republics.  The  Tyrol  besides  connected  Austria 
Proper  with  its  outlying  provinces  near  the  Lake  of  Constance, 
in  Swabia,  and  the  Alsace.  In  consideration  of  this  politically 
important  position,  it  was  looked  upon  as  the  most  precious 
gem  of  the  monarchy,  where  the  policy  of  the  House  of 
Habsburg  continued  to  respect  the  old  liberties,  rights,  and 
customs  even  in  the  days  of  Ferdinand  H.  and  Leopold  L, 
when  the  popular  liberties  were  crushed  in  the  Archdukedom 
itself,  and  in  Bohemia,  and  were  at  least  attempted  to  be 
crushed  in  Hungary.  It  was  also  very  important  in  a  com- 
mercial point  of  view,  being  the  high  road  for  all  traffic  to  and 
fro  across  the  Alps.  Much  money  was  thus  drawn  into  the 
country,  whose  agriculture  and  cattle-breeding  were  raised  by 
it  to  a  state  of  high  prosperity.  The  fairs  at  Botzen,  having 
been  established  as  early  as  the  time  of  Frederic  Barbarossa, 
were  then  most  flourishing,  and  became  a  source  of  great 
wealth  to  the  country.  Maximilian  used  to  say  of  the  Tyrol, 
"  It  is  a  coarse  coat  of  frieze,  but  it  keeps  one  warm."  He 
Hked  to  dress  in  the  Tyrolese  fashion,  in  a  green  short  coat, 
with  a  broad-brimmed  green  hat  on  his  head. 

The  hills  and  valleys  of  the  Tyrol  are  full  of  memorials  of 
his  sporting  adventures.  The  most  famous  is  that  which  he 
met  with  on  the  precipice  called  the  Martinswand,  and  which 
has  been  celebrated  by  Collins's  poem.  On  this  steep  rock  in 
the  Zirler  mountains,  in  the  valley  of  the  Upper  Inn,  he 
caused  a  wooden  cross,  forty  feet  high,  to  be  erected  on 
the  brink  of  the  giddy  height  in  token  of  his  wonderful 
escape.  In  1490  an  angel,  or  rather  the  Tyrolese  chamois- 
hunter,  Oswald  Zips,  who  halloed  to  him,  and  who  was 
therefore  ennobled  under  the  name  of  Hollauer  von  Hohenfels 
(High-rock),  is  said  to  have  saved  him  there  from  starving, 
after  his  having  remained  in  this  perilous  position  for  two 
days  and  two  nights.  At  another  time  Maximilian,  on  a  steep 
rock  in  the  Tyrol,  stood  his  ground  against  a  ferocious  bear. 
The  Netherlands  were  likewise  the  scene  of  many  of  his 
hunting  adventures.     In  the  Brabant  forest  one  day  a  stag 


SPORTING    ADVENTURES  7 

met  him  in  a  narrow  close  path,  and  was  going  to  leap 
over  him,  when  Maximihan  stabbed  him  with  his  sword 
through  the  heart,  and  thus  flung  the  creature  back. 
Being  also  passionately  fond  of  hawking,  he  sent  for 
hawks  from  the  most  distant  countries,  even  from  Tartary, 
and  employed  for  this  sport  a  staff  of  upwards  of  sixty 
persons  under  fifteen  head  falconers. 

Maximilian  was  bold  even  to  temerity.  At  Munich  he 
once  went  alone  into  the  cage  of  a  lion,  forced  open  its 
jaws  and  pulled  out  its  tongue,  whilst  the  beast  quietly 
submitted  to  it.  At  Ulm  he  mounted  the  highest  ledge  of 
the  tower  of  the  minster,  and,  stepping  out  upon  the  iron 
bar  by  which  the  beacon  lantern  was  suspended,  balanced 
himself  on  one  foot,  poising  the  other  in  the  air. 

Maximilian  inherited  very  little  of  his  father's  nature  and 
disposition  ;  in  fact,  he  took  much  more  after  his  mother  and 
grandmother.  Like  the  latter,  the  Polish  Cimburga,  he  was 
of  extraordinary  strength,  and  like  his  mother,  the  lively 
southron,  Eleanora  of  Portugal,  full  of  spirit  and  animation. 
Fanciful  and  romantically  chivalrous,  he  has  been  called 
"  the  last  knight,  with  whom  the  middle  ages  were  buried." 

He  was  most  active  in  war  as  well  as  in  the  lists.  When 
he  held  his  first  Diet  at  Worms  the  French  knight  Claude  de 
Barre,  a  man  of  gigantic  strength,  hung  out  his  shield  from 
the  window  of  his  inn,  challenging  all  the  Germans  to  single 
combat.  Maximilian  then  had  the  arms  of  Austria  and  Bur- 
gundy hung  by  the  side  of  the  shield  of  the  Frenchman,  whom 
he  conquered  with  the  sword,  after  the  lances  of  both  had 
glanced  from  the  cuirasses.  Such  was  Maximilian's  strength 
that  he  would  wrench  off  iron  bars  merely  with  his  hand. 
There  was  no  one  more  skilful  as  an  archer,  no  one  more 
expert  as  a  horseman,  than  he.  He  was  the  best  shot,  the 
best  gunner  and  manager  of  the  ordnance,  as  he  was  likewise 
the  first  in  all  field  sports.  Gunnery  was  one  of  his  hobbies ; 
in  battle  he  very  frequently  pointed  the  cannon  himself,  shoot- 
ing as  if  for  a  match  with  the  regular  artillerymen.  In  the 
Netherlands  he  once  landed  under  the  fire  of  the  French 
guns,  and  took  their  pieces  from  them.    The  Emperor  had 


8  MAXIMILIAN     I. 

the  four  largest  arsenals  of  that  time — at  Vienna,  at  Inns- 
bruck, at  Görtz,  and  at  Breisach.  Among  his  famous  can- 
nons, some  of  what  he  called  his  sharp  (saucy)  wenches  bore 
the  names  "  the  Fair  Semiramis,"  "  the  Fair  Helena,"  "  the 
Fair  Medea,"  "  the  Fair  Dido,"  "the  Fair  Thisbe."  Others 
were  called  "the  Weckauf"  (the  Awakener),  and  "the 
Purlepaus."  Maximilian,  with  the  help  of  George  of  Frunds- 
berg,  his  brave  captain  in  war,  organised  the  paid  militia, 
which  had  been  established  since  the  times  of  the  Hussite 
War,  under  the  name  of  the  German  Lansquenets.  He 
formed  them  in  regiments,  and  they  soon  became  the  dread  of 
all  Europe.  He  knew  very  well  how  to  manage  them  ;  and 
on  one  occasion  when  they  mutinied,  growling  at  him  for 
their  pay,  he  pacified  them  at  last,  with  the  help  of  his  jester, 
by  some  broad  jokes. 

Under  Maximilian  the  soldiery  began  to  form  a  distinct 
class.  They  made  war  for  the  mere  pay,  without  caring  in 
the  least  for  what  object.  The  princes  would  retain  these 
mercenaries  in  time  of  peace  also,  partly  as  body-guards  and 
partly  as  garrisons  in  the  fortified  places.  This  caused  a  very 
material  change  in  the  political  constitution  of  Europe.  In 
ancient  times  the  whole  people  had  carried  arms ;  in  the 
middle  ages  only  the  feudal  nobles  and  the  burghers ;  yet 
these  also  now  gradually  left  the  profession  of  arms  entirely 
to  the  soldiery.  Thus  the  power  which  had  formerly  rested 
with  the  people,  then  with  the  nobility  and  the  cities,  was 
more  and  more  exclusively  transferred  to  the  princes. 

Maximilian,  however,  was  not  yet  able  to  accomplish 
great  things  with  the  help  of  his  Lansquenets.  Being  a  bad 
financier,  he  always  lacked  the  money  to  pay  them.  He  was 
therefore  called,  in  derision,  "  Poco  denari  "  (the  Penniless). 
His  best  treasure  was  always  in  pledge  with  his  rich  subjects, 
and  once  (see  Rymer's  "  Fcedera,"  xiii.  p.  234),  in  1505,  being 
in  great  straits  for  money,  he  even  pledged  to  King  Henry 
VII.  of  England,  at  that  time  reputed  to  be  the  richest 
prince  in  Christendom,  the  celebrated  ßetiv  de  lys,  the  largest 
jewel  of  those  times,  which  he  had  inherited  from  Mary  of 
Burgundy.     The  money  lent  by  the  royal  pawnbroker  on  this 


GAIETY    OF    THE     EMPEROR  9 

security  amounted  to  50,000  crowns,  at  four  shillings  sterling 
each. 

Maximilian  was  exceedingly  free  and  open-handed,  the 
very  opposite  of  his  stingy,  avaricious  father.  This  generous 
disposition  he  showed  even  when  a  mere  boy.  His  father 
having  one  day  given  him  a  dish  with  fruit  and  a  purse  with 
money,  he  kept  the  fruit  and  gave  the  money  to  his  servants. 
When  the  father  sighed,  "  That  will  be  a  scattergood " 
{Streugütlein),  Maximilian  replied,  '•  I  will  not  be  king  of  the 
money,  but  of  the  people,  and  of  all  those  who  possess 
money." 

Maximilian,  in  an  Austrian  "  patriarchal "  way,  loved  the 
people,  who  reverenced  him,  and  he  lived  with  them  on  very 
good  terms,  especially  with  the  burghers  of  the  free  imperial 
cities  and  their  fair  wives  and  daughters.  Once,  in  the  camp 
before  Padua,  he  was  warned  against  the  Italian  viands  of 
a  sutler's  wife ;  but  he  ate  the  whole  of  his  portion,  saying, 
"  Never  fear  ;  she  is  an  Augsburg  woman,  and  they  are  very 
good  people."  Maximilian,  therefore,  was  very  popular  with 
the  German  burghers ;  he  shared  in  their  feasts,  engaged  in 
their  shooting  -  matches,  and  danced  at  their  balls.  The 
chronicles  of  Augsburg  mention  the  magnificent  dances  got 
up  in  this  city  for  him,  as  well  as  for  Philip  of  Burgundy,  his 
not  less  gallant  son ;  in  particular,  how  in  the  courtyard  of 
the  "  Frohnhof,"  the  house  of  the  bishop,  on  St.  John's  eve, 
bonfires  fifty  feet  high  were  lit,  round  which  the  royal  guests 
danced  the  torch-dance  with  the  daughters  of  the  patrician 
houses.  It  was  on  account  of  the  ladies  that  Maximilian 
liked  Augsburg  better  than  any  other  city  in  the  world,  for 
which  reason  Louis  XII.  of  France  generally  used,  in  jest,  to 
call  him  "  the  Burgomaster  of  Augsburg."  He  also  liked  a 
dance  with  the  ladies,  married  and  unmarried,  of  Nuremberg. 
On  one  occasion  he  allowed  himself  to  be  disarmed  and  made 
captive  by  them  to  dance  with  them  a  few  days  longer.  It 
is  even  recorded  that  at  Ratisbon  he  let  the  light  of  his 
countenance  shine  upon  that  portion  of  the  fair  sex  whom, 
in  the  language  of  those  times,  we  might  call  the  "  Ladies 
Errant."     The  magistracy,  well  knowing  the  imperial  court 


10  MAXIMILIAN     I. 

and  its  ways,  had  banished  the  whole  set  of  them  from  the 
precincts  of  the  city,  as  long  as  the  Diet  should  last.  They 
therefore  appeared  supplicating  in  a  body  before  the  gay 
Emperor,  as  he  approached  the  city  where  he  was  going  to 
take  in  hand  the  grave  business  of  the  German  Empire. 
And,  indeed,  his  Sacred  Caesarean  Majesty  succeeded  in 
smuggling  them  through  the  gate  by  a  most  extraordinary 
device.  He  smilingly  ordered  the  frail  petitioner  who  was 
standing  near  him  to  catch  hold  of  the  horse  by  the  tail,  the 
second  to  seize  the  gown  of  the  first,  and  the  third  that  of  the 
second,  and  so  on  to  the  last.  In  this  manner  the  expelled 
beauties  made  their  way  back  into  Ratisbon,  and  were  not 
ungrateful. 

Vienna,  on  the  other  hand,  Maximilian  did  not  like.  He 
could  never  forget  that,  when  in  1462  the  people  of  that 
capital  besieged  his  father  in  his  palace  (the  Hofburg),  until 
Podiebrad  of  Bohemia  came  to  his  rescue,  he,  at  that  time  a 
boy  not  quite  five  years  of  age,  had  to  suffer  cruelly  from 
hunger,  the  pangs  of  which  were  but  scantily  relieved  by  a 
small  supply  of  game  from  his  well-beloved  court  tailor, 
Kronberger. 

Maximilian  was  most  good-natured  and  affable,  and  very 
forgiving,  even  to  those  who  might  have  done  him  personal 
wrong.  The  nobles  of  his  household,  taking  advantage  of 
this,  cheated  him  right  and  left.  One  of  them,  otherwise  a 
devoted  servant  of  his,  had  once  embezzled  several  thousand 
florins,  when  the  Emperor  asked  him,  *'  What  does  a  thief 
deserve  who  has  stolen  such  and  such  a  sum  ? "  naming  the 
exact  amount.  The  gentleman  answered,  "  He  deserves  to 
be  hanged ; "  on  which  the  Emperor,  tapping  his  shoulder, 
said,  "  By  no  means ;  we  want  your  services  some  time 
longer."  To  the  clergy  he  showed  just  as  much  deference  as 
his  ancestor  Rodolph  had  done ;  he  never  allowed  a  priest  to 
stand  in  his  presence.  To  the  fair  sex  he  was  so  gallant  and 
polite  that  he  would  not  *'thou"  even  the  meanest  woman. 
He  was  personally  very  unpretending,  and  one  day  said  to  a 
poet  who  was  fulsome  in  his  praise,  "  My  dear  fellow,  I  am 
sure  you  do  not  quite  know  me,  nor  any  other  prince." 


GENEALOGY  AND  HERALDRY  II 

Once  he  caused  diligent  inquiries  to  be  made  into  his 
pedigree,  when  a  wag  wrote  on  the  wall  of  the  courtyard  of 
his  castle  the  well-known  lines : 

"  When  Adam  delved  and  Eve  span, 
"Who  was  then  the  gentleman  ?  " 

The  Emperor  wrote  the  answer  underneath : 

"  I  am  a  man  as  others  be, 
But  that  the  Lord  exalted  me."  i 

The  King  of  France  he  used  to  call  a  king  of  asses, 
because  his  subjects  would  bear  any  burden  he  imposed  upon 
them ;  the  King  of  Spain,  a  king  of  men,  as  they  only  obeyed 
him  in  what  was  reasonable ;  the  King  of  England,  a  king  of 
angels,  for  he  commanded  them  but  what  was  just  and  fair, 
whereas  they,  on  their  side,  obeyed  him  willingly  and  rightly. 
Himself  he  called  a  king  of  kings,  "  for,"  said  he,  "  they  obey 
us  when  they  please." 

Maximilian  was  exceedingly  jealous  of  his  descent  and 
imperial  prerogative.  He  commissioned  seven  historio- 
graphers to  find  out  the  origin  of  his  house — the  most 
brilliant,  but  not  the  true  one  from  the  cradle  of  his  house 
at  the  small  castle  in  the  Argau.  About  a  dozen  pedigrees 
were  produced  in  consequence,  the  most  learned  of  which 
went  back  as  far  as  Adam.  Maximilian,  to  use  his  own 
expression,  wanted  in  every  way  to  "outdo  Julius  Csesar, 
and  to  be  senipev  e  familia  Caroli  Magni."  This  Carolus  Mag- 
nus was,  by  hook  or  by  crook,  to  be  made  his  ancestor. 
Maximilian  quartered  with  the  arms  of  Spain  those  of 
Portugal  and  England,  because  his  mother  was  a  princess 
of  Portugal,  descended  from  the  house  of  Lancaster.  In 
virtue  of  this  Lancastrian  descent,  he  quartered  also  the 
arms  of  France.  Besides  the  arms  of  Hungary  and  Bo- 
hemia, he  assumed  those  of  the  Byzantine  Empire,  as 
"  being  only  severed  from  the  Roman  Empire  owing  to 
the   arrogance  of  the   Greek    Church,    wherefore   God   had 

1  "  Ich  bin  ein  Mann,  wie  ander  Mann, 
Nur  dass  mir  Gott  die  Ehre  gann." 


12  MAXIMILIAN     I. 

chastised  it,  and  made  it  subject  to  the  heathen,  and  King 
MaximiHan  or  his  descendants  might  hope  in  a  short  time 
to  reconquer  it."  He  pretended  to  be  related  to  the  Im- 
perial family  of  the  Palaeologi.  On  his  coins  he  called 
himself,  like  the  Grand  Turk,  the  Shahs  of  Persia,  the 
Great  Mogul,  and  the  Czars  of  Russia,  "the  Ruler  of  all 
the  Countries  of  the  Orient  and  Occident";  or  else,  "The 
King  of  all  Christendom  and  of  several  other  Provinces."  ^ 

He  once  formed  the  intention,  after  the  example  of 
Frederic  Barbarossa,  to  put  himself,  as  the  first  warrior  of 
Christendom,  at  the  head  of  an  army  of  crusaders,  to  pro- 
ceed down  the  Danube,  to  free  Constantinople,  and  to  drive 
the  Turks  back  into  Asia.  For  this  purpose,  Pope  Leo  X. 
had  already  given  him  the  consecrated  sword  and  cap ;  and 
the  Diet  of  Augsburg,  in  1518,  on  which  Luther  also  made 
his  appearance,  granted  him,  for  this  war  against  the  in- 
fidels, the  subsidy  of  a  poll-tax.  Maximilian  caused  him- 
self also  to  be  elected  successor  to  the  throne  of  Sweden, 
and  even  put  his  opponents  in  that  kingdom  under  the  ban 
and  double  ban  of  the  Empire.  Poland  was  to  acknow- 
ledge his  supremacy,  and  to  absolve  the  order  of  the  Teu- 
tonic knights  from  its  allegiance,  to  which  the  latter  had 
been  subjected  in  the  peace  of  Thorn ;  and  moreover 
render  to  him  the  coast  of  the  Baltic  and  the  mouth  of 
the  Vistula. 

Maximilian  was  the  first  potentate  who  drew  the  Muscovites 
into  the  family  of  the  European  States,  concluding  a  treaty  of 
alliance  with  Russia,  until  then  an  Asiatic  power.  He  sent 
ambassadors,  arquebusiers,  gunners,  gunsmiths,  armourers, 
and  miners  from  the  Netherlands,  Tyrol,  and  Styria,  to  Ivan 
Vasilevitch,  who  broke  the  yoke  of  the  Tartars,  and  to  his 
son  Vasilij,  who  retook  Smolensk  from  the  Poles. 

The  first  ambassador  sent  by  Maximilian  was  the  rich 
baron,    George    Schnitzenbaumer,    of    Carniola,    who    was 

1  By  the  countries  of  the  Orient  he  meant  Hungary,  Bohemia, 
Croatia,  and  Dalmatia;  by  those  of  the  Occident,  the  Spanish  king- 
doms. His  title  ran  thus :  Christianitatis  ac  aUorum  regnorum  Rex 
Heresque  OCP.  AC.  A.  Reg.  R.  HER.  Q.) ;  he  also  called  himself 
Plurimum  Europa;  provinciarura  Rex  et  Princeps  potentissimus. 


HIS    SECOND     MARRIAGE  I3 

directed,  ad  captandam  hcnevolentiam,  to  address  the  Czar  as 
"  Emperor  and  Autocrat  of  all  the  Rttssias."  But  the  second 
ambassador,  the  celebrated  Syndic  of  Augsburg,  Conrad 
Peutinger,  was  obliged,  in  the  relation  which  he  had  to 
lay  before  the  Diet  in  1514,  to  express  a  doubt  whether 
Schnitzenbaumer  had  not  exceeded  his  instructions  in  con- 
ceding to  the  Czar  anything  that  might  be  contrary  to  the 
His  Imperial  Majesty's  conscience,  to  the  style  and  ordi- 
nances of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire,  or  to  the  Christian 
religion.  In  1517,  the  learned  Sigismund  von  Herberstein 
went  as  ambassador  to  Russia ;  and  his  voluminous  work 
describing  that  embassy  and  another  in  1526,  published  in 
1549  in  Vienna  and  1557  in  Basle,  first  introduced  that 
country  to  the  knowledge  of  the  people  of  Europe.  Maxi- 
milian, and  after  him  Charles  V.,  continually  planned 
attempts  at  conversion,  by  which  the  Eastern  and  Western 
Churches  were  to  be  united.  Maximilian  also  repeatedly 
entertained  projects  of  marriage  with  Russia.  On  the 
other  hand,  he  was  hostile  in  his  policy  against  Poland, 
which  at  that  time  extended  from  the  Baltic  to  the  Black 
Sea,  and  from  Posen  and  Cracow  to  Smolensk,  and  which 
then  was  ruled  by  Sigismund  Jagello,  one  of  the  greatest 
kings  of  his  age. 

Maximilian,  after  the  death  of  his  first  wife,  remained  a 
widower  for  twelve  years.  He  never  as  long  as  he  lived 
forgot  his  beloved  Burgundian  ]\Iary,  the  mere  mention  of 
whose  name  brought  tears  into  his  eyes.  He  once  on  his 
knees  entreated  the  celebrated  Abbot  Trittheim  of  Würtzburg 
to  conjure  up  before  him  her  dear  shade.  The  abbot  under- 
took to  do  so,  forbidding  the  Emperor  at  his  peril  to  address 
the  vision  which  should  appear  before  him.  But  Maximilian, 
unable  to  control  his  overflowing  heart,  addressed  the  beloved 
form  with  the  most  endearing  words,  and  thus  destroyed  the 
charm.  Yet  the  proud  ruler  of  Austria,  who  was  so  fond  of 
surrounding  himself  with  the  halo  of  Carolingian  descent, 
married  in  1494,  just  one  year  after  his  accession,  in  second 
wedlock,  a  lady  "of  no  birth  whatever" — Bianca  Maria, 
who,  it  is  true,  like  his  first  wife,  brought  him  great  wealth, 


14  MAXIMILIAN    I. 

being  the  daughter  of  Duke  Galeazzo  Sforza  of  Milan,  a 
descendant  of  that  first  Sforza  whom  Maximilian's  father, 
the  Emperor  Frederic  III.,  had  refused  to  invest,  as  the 
bastard  of  a  peasant,  with  the  duchy  of  Milan.  In  those 
times,  however,  Bianca  was  not  the  less  considered  for  all 
that;  as  in  Maximilian's  reign  the  principle  was  still  valid 
which  is  in  force  to  the  present  day  in  England,  that  the  wife 
shares  the  superior  rank  of  her  husband  irrespective  of  her 
own. 

After  the  death  of  his  second  wife,  Bianca  Maria,  the 

Emperor  conceived  the  strange  plan  of  becoming  Pope.     In 

Maximilian's  correspondence  with  his  only  daughter,  Margaret 

of  Austria,  Regent  of  the  Netherlands  (published  in  Paris  in 

1839),  we  find  a  letter  of  the  old  Emperor,  dated  September 

i8th,  1512,  in  which  he  tells  Margaret  "that  he  did  not  think 

it  meet  to  marry  again,  that  he  had  even  resolved  upon  living 

henceforth  in  perfect  celibacy.     He  intended  to  send,  on  the 

day  following,   his  beloved   Matthew  Lang  of  Wellenburg, 

Bishop  of  Gurk,  to  Pope  Julius  IL,  who  had  the  ague  and 

could  not  live  much  longer,  to  induce  his  Holiness  to  make 

him  (Maximilian)  his  coadjutor,  so  that  after  the  death  of  the 

Pontiff  he  might  succeed  to  the  Papal  see.     He  would  then 

be  ordained  a  priest  and  afterwards  canonised  as  a  saint ; 

his  daughter,  therefore,  would  after  his  death  be  obliged  '  to 

worship  him,'  whereat   he   should   feel  very  much  ^glorified.' 

With  200,000  or  300,000  ducats  he  hoped  to  carry  his  point 

with  the  cardinals."     He  signed  himself,  "  Your  good  father, 

Maximilian,  Pope  that  is  to  be."    The  plan  was  not,  however, 

carried  out,  although  Maximilian  had  pledged  his  best  jewels 

with  the  great  banking-house  of   Fugger  at  Augsburg,  to 

procure   the   large  sums  requisite  "  to  refresh   the   parched 

throats  of  the  cardinals." 

Gaiety,  magnificence,  and  pleasure  reigned  paramount  at 
Maximilian's  court.  Whatever  tends  to  embellish  and  cheer 
life  was  there  to  be  found.  Maximilian  therefore  cultivated 
science  and  the  fine  arts  with  the  greatest  assiduity.  He  also 
devoted  himself  eagerly  to  the  study  of  astrology,  just  as  his 
father  had  done  before  him.      But  most  fondly  of   all  did 


HIS     FRIENDS  I5 

Maximilian  love  history,  "  that  noble  damsel,"  as  Fugger, 
the  author  of  "  The  Mirror  of  Honour  of  the  Archducal 
House  of  Austria,"  writes,  "  who,  under  his  reign,  was  led 
forth  again  from  her  dark  dungeon  full  of  moths  and  rust  to 
the  light  of  day."  Maximilian  himself  dictated  to  his  secre- 
tary, Treizsauerwein,  the  history  of  his  father  and  his  own, 
under  the  allegorical  title,  "Der  Weiss  Kunig"  (the  Wise 
King).  He  also  composed  the  plan  of  "  Theuerdank,"  i.e., 
"The  Knight  thinking  of  Adventures,"  a  book  which  describes 
his  own  chivalrous  deeds  and  dangers,  and  which  was  worked 
out  in  German  verses  by  Melchior  Pfinzing,  the  provost  of 
St.  Sebaldus  of  Nuremberg.  Maximilian  has  written,  on  all 
sorts  of  subjects,  no  less  than  twenty-two  books,  which  are 
still  extant  in  the  imperial  library  at  Vienna  {Hofhibliothek). 
There  are  also  to  be  found  there  those  strange  questions 
which,  in  1508,  he  put  to  Abbot  Trittheim.  As,  for  instance, 
"  Since  Christendom  comprehends  only  a  small  part  of  the 
globe,  should  not  everyone  who  believes  in  a  God  be  saved 
by  his  own  religion  ?  "  "  Why  is  Revelation  in  so  many 
points  obscure  and  contradictory,  stating  what  one  does  not 
care  to  know,  and  not  stating  what  one  would  so  much  wish 
to  know  ?  "  "  Why  should  witches  have  power  over  the  evil 
spirits,  whilst  an  honest  man  cannot  get  anything  from  an 
angel  ?  " 

In  Maximilian's  reign  lived  the  poetical  shoemaker  of 
Nuremberg,  Hans  Sachs,  and  the  great  painter  and  engraver, 
Albert  Dürer,  also  at  Nuremberg.  The  latter  he  esteemed 
very  highly,  and  repeatedly  had  his  portrait  painted  by  him, 
even  at  his  last  Diet  in  15 18.  The  celebrated  friend  of  Albert 
Dürer,  Williebald  Pirkheimer,  a  learned  patrician  and  senator 
of  Nuremberg,  likewise  belonged  to  the  circle  of  the  Emperor's 
friends,  which  comprehended,  besides  many  others,  the  illus- 
trious John  Reuchlin;  the  famous  captain,  George  von  Frunds- 
berg,  and  the  bishops  Hans  von  Dalberg  of  Worms,  the 
restorer  of  German  learning  and  art,  and  Christopher  Stadion 
of  Augsburg. 

But,  notwithstanding  his  personal  amiability,  which  is  the 
most  interesting  feature  in  his  history — much  more  interest« 


l6  MAXIMILIAN     I. 

ing  than  anything  he  ever  performed — he  was  out  of  his  place 
as  well  in  the  council  as  in  the  battle-field.     The  feats  of  a 
knight,  of  a  hunter,  of  an  athlete,  and  the  achievements  of  a 
patron  of  art  and  science,  are  far  from  being  deeds  which  are 
looked  up  to  in  an  Emperor.      Maximilian  was  a  man  of 
genius,  restlessly  active,  always  forming  new  plans;  but  he 
was  not  a  great  character  as  a  ruler.     In  all  his  thoughts, 
plans,  and  acts  he  was  deficient  in  energy  and  greatness,  in 
tenacity  and  steadfastness  of  purpose,  in  consistent  and  sus- 
tained application.     He  was  more  of  a  preux  chevalier  than  of 
an  Emperor.     He  had  inherited  from  his  father,  besides  his 
good-humour,  that  petty  spirit  of  detail  and  of  trifling  which 
wastes  great  energies  on  little  matters.      He  by  no  means 
succeeded  in  outdoing  Julius  Caesar ;  on  the  contrary,  he  was 
only  too  often  himself  outdone.       Like  his  father,  he  never 
accompUshed  anything  great.      He  did  not  take  in  his  own 
hands  the   reform  of  the   Church,   on  which  all   the  great 
interests  hinged  that  stirred  up  in  his  time  the  minds  of  the 
European  world.      He  never  accomplished  anything  of  the 
least  importance  against  the  Turks,  at  that  time  the  principal 
enemies  of  the  western  world.      Under  him  Italy  was  lost. 
As   early  as   1494,  in  the  second  year  after  his  accession, 
Charles  VIII.  made  his  great  victorious  campaign  into  that 
country ;  and  at  the  death  of  Maximilian,  Milan  and  Genoa 
were  in  French  hands.      Under  Maximilian,  Switzerland,  this 
important  bulwark  in  the  south,  completed  its  separation  from  the 
German  Empire  by  refusing  to  acknowledge  the  Imperial  Court  of 
Chancery.     The  Swiss  now  became  more  and  more  subject  to 
the  influence  of  France,  and  their  country  was  thenceforth 
the  nursery  of  mercenaries  for  France  in  her  wars  of  defence 
against  the  threatening  supremacy  of  the  House  of  Habsburg, 
and  at  a  later  period,  under  Louis  XIII.  and  Louis  XIV.,  in 
their  wars  of  conquest  at  the  expense  of  the  German  Empire. 
Maximilian  never  succeeded  in  making  himself  truly  respected, 
either  by  his  own  countrymen,  the  Germans,  nor  even,  in  his 
French,  Swiss,  and  Venetian  wars,  by  the  foreigner.    He  was 
very  often  the  "  Knight  of  the  Rueful  Countenance,"  and  was 
laughed  at  and  ridiculed.     Machiavelli,  the  greatest  political 


THE    "GENERAL   PEACE"  I7 

genius  of  his,  and  one  of  the  greatest  of  all  times,  said  of  him, 
"  Maximilian  thinks  always  to  act  independently,  and  yet  he 
follows  the  first  impulse  only;  he  has  a  rich  stock  of  plans, 
but  they  all  in  the  execution  turn  out  differently  from  his  first 
intention."  Even  his  jester,  Conrad  von  der  Rosen,  used  to 
tease  him  about  the  strange  devices  which  he  often  formed. 
One  day  when  playing  at  cards  with  him,  he  said  to  him, 
"  Look  here,  Maxey,  as  such  a  king  of  cards  thy  princes 
do  consider  thee."  In  very  many  things  Maximilian  did  not 
follow  the  best  counsel,  for  he  always  followed  his  own.  He 
had  for  his  chancellor  Cyprian  Sernteiner  von  Nordheim,  of 
an  ancient  Tyrolese  family,  a  man  of  sound  common  sense, 
spotless  fidelity,  and  so  simple  that,  for  the  conclusion  of  the 
treaty  of  Blois  in  1505,  he  rode  from  Innsbruck  on  horseback 
as  courier,  day  and  night,  all  the  way  to  Blois,  carrying  his 
only  silk  suit  behind  him  on  his  horse.  This  chancellor  wrote 
from  Duisburg  (January,  1509)  to  Paul  von  Lichtenstein, 
"  His  Majesty  can  never  be  quiet,  and  that's  why  such  as  we 
can  do  so  little." 

With  Maximilian,  as  we  have  said  before,  the  middle 
ages  were  buried.  He  put  down  the  disgraceful  club  law 
[Fatistrecht)  by  proclaiming  at  the  Diet  of  Worms  in  1495  the 
celebrated  "General  Peace  of  the  Empire"  {Landfrieden), -with. 
and  through  which  a  new  era  is  ushered  in.  By  virtue  of  this 
enactment  every  attempt  at  taking  the  law  in  one's  own 
hand,  as  well  as  of  waylaying  and  of  levying  blackmail  in 
the  Empire,  was  thenceforth  to  cease.  But  it  was  much 
easier  to  pass  the  law  than  to  enforce  it.  A  long  time  after 
the  highways  remained  unsafe,  and  people  could  not  travel 
without  taking  from  one  town  to  the  other  an  escort  of  horse- 
men or  of  arquebusiers,  who  went  in  waggons.  It  was  one  of 
the  principal  objects  of  the  "General  Peace"  that  the  feuds 
of  the  members  of  the  Empire  should  no  longer  be  settled 
by  force  of  arms,  but  by  the  legal,  peaceful  decision  of  the 
Imperial  Court  of  Chancery  (the  Reichskammer gericht).  The 
Empire  thus  entered  into  one  general  confederation,  whereas 
formerly,  for  the  maintenance  of  peace,  a  number  of  particular 
and  provincial  confederations  of  the  princes  and  the  nobles  on 
VOL.  I  2 


l8  MAXIMILIAN     I. 

the  one  hand,  and  of  the  towns  and  cities  on  the  other,  had 
existed.  These  particular  and  provincial  federations  were 
now  to  be  abolished.  The  Imperial  Court  of  Chancery,  being 
the  general  federal  tribunal,  was  empowered  in  the  name  of 
the  Emperor  to  put  the  contending  and  refractory  lieges 
under  the  ban  of  the  Empire.  The  judge  in  chancery 
{Kammerrichter),  the  person  who  presided  over  this  court,  was 
appointed  by  the  Emperor.  Its  fifty  assessors  were  elected 
by  the  members  of  the  Diet.  The  Imperial  Court  of  Chancery 
held  its  first  sitting  on  the  3rd  of  November,  1495,  at  Frank- 
fort, presided  over  by  the  Imperial  High  Steward,  Count 
Eitelfried  of  Zollern,  to  whom,  as  to  the  first  judge  in 
chancery,  the  Emperor  delegated  his  sceptre  as  the  wand  of 
office.  At  first  the  Court  of  Chancery  was  itinerant,  following 
Maximilian  even  into  the  Netherlands;  but  in  1527  it  was 
permanently  established  at  Spires,  until,  in  1693,  during  the 
French  wars  under  Louis  XIV.,  it  was  removed  from  the 
Rhine  farther  into  the  interior  of  Germany,  to  Wetzlai  in 
Westphalia.  A  second  imperial  court,  the  Aulic  Council 
(ReichsJiofyath),  was  established  at  Vienna. 

This  rule  of  the  law  and  law  courts,  substituted  by  Maxi- 
miHan  for  the  old  law  of  arms,  seemed,  however,  to  the 
members  of  the  Empire,  to  the  powerful  princes,  as  well  as 
to  the  great  number  of  the  smaller  barons  and  knights,  a 
hardship  and  a  disgrace.  They  wished  to  remain  warlike 
knights  as  before,  and  for  a  long  time  kicked  against  the 
new  order  of  things ;  for  the  new  judges,  the  councillors  of 
the  Imperial  Court  of  Chancery,  were  no  longer,  as  hereto- 
fore, the  peers  of  those  who  were  to  be  judged  by  them. 
They  were  some  of  them  lawyers  and  doctors,  and  the  barons 
only  called  them  "  the  writers."  They  were  salaried,  and 
the  barons  showed  a  particular  aversion  to  paying  for  the 
law.  It  is  true  that,  because  the  lawyers  were  to  be  feed, 
lawsuits  became  more  and  more  tedious  ;  and  as  the  pro- 
ceedings were  no  longer  carried  on  orally,  but  in  writing — no 
longer  publicly,  but  in  close  chambers — they  became  inter- 
minable. In  Güthe's  "  Götz  von  Berlichingcn  "  the  antago- 
iiism  of  the  old  knights  of  the  sword  and  the  lance  against 


THE    IMPERIAL    COURT    OF   CHANCERY  IQ 

these  new  knights  of  pen  and  paper  is  sketched  with  masterly 
skill.  Sickingen's  downfall  only  reduced  the  barons  to 
obedience.  The  greatest  misfortune,  however,  was  that  the 
court  was  utterly  wanting  in  power  to  enforce  its  decrees 
against  the  more  powerful  princes  of  the  Empire,  who  alto- 
gether refused  to  obey  them.  These,  being  neither  more  nor 
less  than  the  first  vassals  of  the  Empire,  quite  systematically 
arrogated  to  themselves  the  sovereignty  over  the  territories 
which  they  held  as  fiefs  of  the  Empire ;  and,  establishing, 
in  imitation  of  the  Imperial  Court  of  Chancery,  territorial 
courts  of  their  own,  they  presumed  henceforth  to  treat 
imperial  cities  which  happened  to  lie  within  their  territories, 
and  counts  and  lords  holding  their  fiefs  from  the  Empire,  but 
whose  possessions  were  enclosed  in  theirs,  as  their  own 
vassals.  This  mode  of  taking  the  law  into  their  own  hands 
they  even  continued  to  employ  against  the  Emperor  himself. 
The  Smalcalde  war,  indeed,  very  nearly  brought  them  to 
ruin ;  but  the  expedition  of  the  Elector  Maurice  against 
Charles  V.  again  made  the  power  of  the  princes  triumph 
de  facto,  until  the  Peace  of  Westphalia  established  it  also 
de  jure. 

Under  Maximilian  the  new  bureaucratical  element  already 
began  to  make  its  power  to  be  felt.  The  lawyers  now 
became,  like  the  soldiers,  a  particular  and  most  influential 
class  in  the  State.  Everything  was  henceforth  settled  accord- 
ing to  the  Roman  law,  written  in  a  language  which  was  un- 
intelligible to  the  illiterate.  The  differences  of  the  Justinian 
codex  from  the  old  common  law  were  made  use  of  to  raise  the 
power  of  the  princes  to  a  still  higher  pitch.  The  sophistry  of 
the  lawyers  became  a  formidable  tool  in  the  hands  of  the 
princes,  and  soon  a  traffic  was  carried  on  with  the  law,  just  as 
until  then  had  been  carried  on  by  the  priests  with  indulgences. 
As  early  as  that  time  the  Italian  Patricius  wrote :  "  The 
German  jurists  turn  and  twist  everything  according  to  their 
own  pleasure.  It  is  their  greatest  pride,  at  the  Diets,  to  give 
their  oracular  verdicts  as  the  councillors  of  the  princes.  They 
foster  litigations  for  their  own  purposes,  to  obtain  the  sove- 
reign power  for  their  princes." 

2 — 2 


20  MAXIMILIAN     I. 

To  Maximilian  is  owing  the  division  of  Germany  into 
circles,  which  was  settled  at  the  Diet  of  Cologne  in  15 12. 
He  formed  ten  circles  of  the  Empire.  These  were  the 
following : 

1.  The  Swabian  circle;  comprising  Würtemberg,  Baden, 
and  Alsace,  all  the  country  to  the  Lech,  between  the  Neckar 
and  the  Lake  of  Constance,  with  the  exception  of  the  West- 
Austrian  possessions  in  Alsace  and  in  Swabia,  which  were 
reckoned  with  the  Austrian  circle. 

2.  The  Bavarian  circle  ;  comprising  the  country  from  the 
Lech  to  the  frontiers  of  Austria  and  Bohemia,  and  from  the 
archbishopric  of  Salzburg  to  the  territories  of  Nuremberg, 
Bamberg,  Anspach,  and  Baireuth. 

3.  The  Austrian  circle ;  consisting  of  all  the  Austrian 
countries,  the  outlying  provinces  in  Alsace  and  Swabia,  as 
well  as  the  Tyrol  and  Austria  proper. 

4.  The  Franconian  circle ;  from  the  country  of  Henne- 
berg,  which  it  included,  to  the  territories  of  Nuremberg, 
Bamberg,  Anspach,  and  Baireuth,  which  it  likewise  included  ; 
and  from  the  frontiers  of  the  Saxon  Vogtland  to  the  bishopric 
of  Würtzburg,  the  latter  also  included. 

5.  The  Upper  Saxon  circle,  with  the  electorate  and  the 
duchies  of  Saxony,  Thuringia,  Misnia,  besides  Anhalt,  the 
electorate  of  Brandenburg,  and  Pomerania. 

6.  The  Lower  Saxon  circle ;  comprising  all  the  Brunswick 
possessions,  the  archbishopric  of  Magdeburg,  and  the  duchies 
of  Mecklenburg  and  Holstein. 

7.  The  Westphalian  circle ;  all  the  country  from  the 
Weser  to  the  Rhine  ;  the  Westphalian  bishoprics  and  the 
duchies  of  Berg,  Nassau,  and  Oldenburg  ;  and  besides,  on  the 
left  bank  of  the  Rhine,  the  duchies  of  Juliers,  Cleves,  and 
Guelderland,  and  the  bishoprics  of  Liege  and  Utrecht ; 
Guelderland  and  Utrecht  were,  however,  separated  again 
under  Charles  V.,  in  1548,  from  the  Westphalian  circle,  and 
embodied  with  the  Netherlandish  provinces. 

8.  The  Electoral  Rhenish  circle  ;  comprising  the  arch- 
bishopric of  Cologne,  with  the  duchy  of  Westphalia ;  the 
archbishopric  of  Mayence,  with  the  county  of  Eichsfeld  in 


THE    CIRCLES    OF    THE    EMPIRE  21 

Thuringia  ;    the   archbishopric  of  Treves  ;    and,  lastly,  the 
Electoral  Palatinate,  with  Heidelberg. 

9.  The  Upper  Rhenish  circle ;  comprising,  on  the  right 
bank  of  the  Rhine,  the  Wetterau,  the  whole  of  Hesse  and 
the  bishoprics  of  Hersfeld  and  Fulda ;  on  the  left  bank,  the 
possessions  of  the  junior  branches  of  the  Palatine  houses 
Simmern  and  Zweibrücken  (Deux-Ponts) ;  the  bishoprics  of 
Worms,  Spires,  and  Strassburg ;  and  Lorraine. 

10.  The  Burgundian  circle  ;  consisting  of  the  newly 
acquired  Netherlandish  provinces  of  Austria,  to  which,  in 
1548,  Guelderland  and  Utrecht  were  added;  seventeen  pro- 
vinces in  all. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  were  excluded,  as  no  longer 
belonging  to  the  German  Empire : 

1.  Switzerland. 

2.  Bohemia  (at  that  time  in  the  possession  of  the  Jagellons, 
although  being  still  enumerated  in  the  Golden  Bull  as  an 
electorate),  with  Moravia  and  Lusatia. 

3.  The  possessions  of  the  Teutonic  knights  in  Prussia, 
on  the  shores  of  the  Baltic  and  on  the  banks  of  the  Vistula, 
which,  in  the  peace  of  Thorn,  in  1466,  had  become  subject  to 
the  sovereignty  of  Poland. 

Bohemia,  which,  since  the  days  of  Podiebrad  in  1462,  had 
sent  no  more  representatives  to  the  German  Diet,  was  reintro- 
duced into  the  deliberative  body  only  in  1708. 

The  unity  brought  about  by  this  organisation  of  circles 
was,  however,  only  a  formal  one,  linked  together  by  very 
feeble  and  loose  ties.  What  Germany  most  wanted  in  the 
times  of  Maximilian  was  the  restoration  of  the  old  imperial 
rule,  the  establishment  of  a  paramount  central  power,  by 
which  alone  might  have  been  cemented  a  strong  and  close 
union  of  the  scattered  members  of  the  Germanic  body.  An 
attempt  to  bring  this  about  had  already  been  made  during 
the  last  years  of  the  reign  of  Frederic  IH.,  and  at  the 
beginning  of  Maximilian's,  by  the  first  dignitary  of  the 
Church  of  Germany,  the  Elector  Primate  of  Mayence, 
Berthold,  of  the  house  of  the  Counts  of  Henneberg. 

He  planned  a  representation  of  the  Empire  by  a  per- 


22  MAXIMILIAN     I. 

manent  council,  somewhat  after  the  fashion  of  the  English 
parliament.  This  representative  body,  according  to  his 
scheme,  was  to  be  divided  into  two  chambers — one,  the 
Upper  House,  as  an  assembly  of  the  princes ;  the  other,  the 
House  of  Commons,  in  which  the  deputies  of  the  lower 
nobility  and  gentry,  and  those  of  the  cities  were  to  sit.  An 
imperial  tax  was  to  be  levied  for  the  maintenance  of  an  army 
of  the  Empire,  dependent  on  the  Diet. 

In  this  manner  the  principle  would  have  been  established 
that  the  high  aristocracy  were  to  look  upon  the  peasantry  as 
their  tenants,  but  not  as  their  subjects;  as  by  imposing  a 
direct  tax  the  Empire  claimed  the  exclusive  right  of  sovereignty 
over  all  the  lieges  within  its  territory.  The  imperial  tax  was 
to  be  paid  by  all  without  exception ;  by  clergy  as  well  as 
laity,  by  high  and  low,  by  the  prince  and  the  day  labourer. 

Had  the  idea  been  carried  out,  the  subsequent  destructive 
riots  of  the  peasantry  would  have  been  crushed  in  the  bud ; 
and  so  likewise  would  the  new  constitution,  when  once  firmly 
established,  have  prevented  the  schism  in  the  German  Church 
by  a  national  reform  of  the  existing  ecclesiastical  abuses.  A 
united  Germany  might  have  successfully  made  head  against 
the  Pope,  who  would  as  little  have  denied  his  assent  to  the 
accomplished  fact  of  enacted  decrees  in  this  instance,  as  he 
did  in  the  case  of  those  of  the  Council  of  Basle. 

No  opposition  was  at  that  time  to  be  apprehended  from 
the  princes  of  the  Empire  against  Berthold's  plans,  which,  on 
the  other  hand,  would  have  been  even  supported  by  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  moneyed  interest,  the  cities ;  and  also  by  the 
peasantry,  whose  power  was  as  yet  unbroken.  But  it  was 
MaximiUan  himself  who  in  every  possible  way  crossed  the 
plans  of  Berthold  and  opposed  the  scheme  of  a  parliamentary 
constitution. 

All  he  cared  for  was  the  old  policy  of  increasing  the  family 
possessions  of  the  reigning  house  of  Austria,  and  of  raising  it  by' 
great  marriages  to  the  rank  of  a  European  power.  The  con- 
stitution would  have  fettered  Maximilian's  hands;  by  giving 
it  his  royal  assent  he  would  have  had  to  renounce  the 
advantage  of  being  able  to  increase  the  family  estate  by  the 


THE    "FELIX   AUSTRIA    NUBE  "  23 

help  of  the  Empire.  The  idea  of  placing  himself  by  a  parlia- 
mentary German  constitution  at  the  head  of  the  most  powerful, 
best  organised,  and  freest  state  of  Europe  did  not  enter  his 
"  Austrian  patriarchal "  mind.  And  yet  the  sacrifice  would 
have  been  so  small  for  the  prize  !  And  yet,  the  hereditary 
succession  would  not  have  been  refused  to  an  Emperor,  had 
he  only  consented  to  restrain  by  his  own  accord  the  power  of 
his  crown ! 

Berthold  died  in  1504.  He  was  the  last  great  primate  of 
the  German  Church,  i.e.,  German  Church  as  correlative  with 
the  German  Empire.  His  successors,  especially  the  third  one, 
Albert  of  Brandenburg,  who  lived  during  the  Reformation, 
had  no  idea  of  reconstructing  the  Empire  ;  on  the  contrary,  a 
servile  tool  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  he  assisted  in  destroy- 
ing it. 

The  greatest  event  which  happened  during  Maximilian's 
reign  was  undoubtedly  the  commencement  of  the  Reforma- 
tion. The  Emperor  survived  Luther's  placarding  his  ninety- 
five  theses  on  the  palace  chapel  at  Wittenberg  somewhat 
more  than  a  year.  The  last  act  of  his  government  was  the 
Diet  of  Augsburg,  where  Luther  presented  himself  before  the 
Cardinal  Legate  Cajetan.  The  aged,  infirm  Emperor,  who 
had  arrived  there  before  Lent,  to  be  able  to  share  in  the  feasts 
of  the  carnival,  opened  this  Diet  on  the  ist  of  August,  1518. 
He  wished  to  bring  about  at  it  the  election  of  his  grandson 
Charles  as  King  of  the  Romans,  and  then  to  resign  his 
crown,  to  spend  the  remainder  of  his  days  at  Naples,  under 
whose  beautiful  sky  his  physicians  had  led  him  to  hope  he 
would  recover  his  health.  Yet  the  election  did  not  come  to 
pass,  neither  did  the  projected  war  against  the  Turks.  On 
the  contrary,  it  was  remarked  by  some  of  the  members  of  the 
Diet,  that  the  Turk  most  to  be  feared  had  better  be  looked  for 
in  Italy.  All  complained  to  Maximilian  of  the  scandalous 
sale  of  Romish  indulgences.  The  Emperor  himself  very 
likely  leaned  towards  the  opinion  that  the  immoderate  pre- 
tensions of  the  Pope  might  be  somewhat  lowered  by  Luther. 
He  said  to  the  Elector  of  Saxony,  Frederic  the  Wise,  "  We 
must   save  this  monk  for  future  occasions,  maybe  we  shall 


24  MAXIMILIAN     I. 

want  him  ;  "  and  to  the  Saxon  councillor  Pfeffinger,  "  How  is 
your  monk  ?  indeed,  his  positiones  are  by  no  means  to  be 
despised.  He  will  have  fine  sport  among  the  parsons."  Yet 
Maximilian  was  not  the  man  to  open  his  mind  to  the  momen- 
tous signs  of  the  times.  He  died  without  in  the  least 
suspecting  what  a  mighty  future  was  dawning. 

Maximilian  left  Augsburg  in  October  with  a  foreboding  of 
his  approaching  death.  On  arriving  at  the  pillar  called  "  the 
Rennsäule,"  in  the  valley  of  the  Lech,  he  once  more  turned 
towards  the  city,  crossed  himself,  and  said,  "  Well,  the  Lord 
bless  thee,  my  own  fair  Augsburg ;  we  have  had  many  a 
joyous  day  in  thee,  and  now  we  shall  never  see  thee  again." 
He  rode  by  way  of  Füssen  to  his  country  of  Tyrol ;  first  to 
Ehrenberg  to  enjoy  the  noble  sport  of  hawking.  From  thence 
he  went  to  Innsbruck,  carrying  with  him  a  chest,  which  he 
had  caused  to  be  made  three  years  before,  and  in  which 
was  enclosed  his  coffin,  with  all  the  requisite  funeral  fittings. 
At  Innsbruck  the  townspeople  refused  to  take  in  his  car- 
riages and  horses,  as,  by  the  dishonesty  of  the  imperial 
servants,  some  debts  still  remained  unpaid  from  former 
occasions.  The  animals  and  equipages  were,  therefore,  left 
during  the  night  in  the  open  street.  Maximilian,  who 
heard  of  it  in  the  morning,  was  thrown  into  a  fever  by  his 
anger  at  the  insult.  He,  notwithstanding,  embarked  in  the 
cold  of  January  on  the  Inn  for  Upper  Austria,  on  his  way 
to  Vienna.  But  he  only  reached  Wels,  where  he  died, 
1 2th  of  January,  1519,  in  the  sixtieth  year  of  his  age. 

2. — The  Emperor  Maximilian's  Family. 

Maximilian  left,  by  Mary  of  Burgundy,  his  first  wife, 
one  son  and  one  daughter. 

The  latter,  the  Princess  Margaret,  had  been  chosen  in 
1483,  when  still  an  infant,  to  reconcile,  by  a  marriage  with 
Charles  VIII.  of  France,  the  growing  jealousy  between  the 
houses  of  Habsburg  and  Valois. 

But  Charles  VIII.  having  married  Anne,  the  heiress  of 
Brittany,  whom  Maximilian  had  intended  for  his  own  second 
wife,  Margaret  was,  in  1497,  married  at  the  age  of  seventeen. 


HIS    FAMILY  25 

to  the  son  of  Ferdinand  the  Catholic,  the  Infant  Juan,  who 
died  in  the  year  of  his  marriage.  She  then  married  in 
1501  Duke  Philibert  II.  of  Savoy,  who  died  in  1504.  Both 
marriages  having  proved  very  unhappy,  Margaret  did  not 
intend  to  marry  again  ;  notwithstanding  which,  a  new  match 
was  at  least  contemplated,  from  political  motives,  with 
Henry  VII.  of  England,  concerning  which  a  remarkable 
correspondence  is  quoted  in  Rymer's  "Foedera,"  xiii.  p.  173. 
Margaret  afterwards  went  to  the  Netherlands  to  superintend 
the  education  of  her  nephew  Charles  V. ;  and  after  the  death 
of  her  brother  Philip,  in  1506,  she  was  appointed  by  her 
father  Regent  of  the  Low  Countries,  and  died  there,  at  the 
age  of  fifty,  in  1530. 

Maximilian's  only  son  by  Mary  of  Burgundy  was  Philip 
the  Handsome,  or,  as  he  was  also  called,  Philip  of  Austria, 
who  died  before  his  father.  According  to  the  accounts  of  the 
times,  he  was  a  remarkably  good-looking  man,  with  beautiful 
golden  hair,  but  very  fond  of  pleasure  and  dissipation.  He 
was  in  1496,  at  the  age  of  eighteen,  married  to  the  heiress  of 
the  Spanish  monarchy,  the  jealous  and  afterwards  melancholy 
Infanta  Juana  (Jane  the  Insane),  the  daughter  of  Ferdinand 
the  Catholic  and  Isabella.  The  bride  was  at  that  time  in  her 
eighteenth  year. 

Philip  the  Handsome  died,  after  being  married  for  ten 
years,  in  1506,  at  Burgos,  poisoned  by  his  own  jealous 
wife.  From  the  memoirs  of  Frederic  II.,  Elector  Palatine, 
written  by  his  secretary  Thomas  of  Liege,  and  published 
by  Edward  von  Bulow,  it  appears  that  the  gay  Philip  the 
Handsome  used  to  go  out  with  the  equally  gay  Prince 
Palatine  in  search  of  nocturnal  adventures  among  the  fair 
ladies  of  Barcelona. 

Philip  left  two  sons,  who  became  the  founders  of  the  two 
great  branches  of  the  Habsburg  dynasty,  the  Spanish  and  the 
Austrian.  They  were  the  two  Emperors  Charles  V.  and 
Ferdinand  I.     Besides  them,  Philip  left  four  daughters. 

Of  these,  Eleanora  was  married  in  first  wedlock  at  the 
age  of  twenty-one,  in  1519,  to  Emmanuel,  King  of  Portugal, 
who  was  more  than  double  her  age,  and  the  second  time  to 


26  MAXIMILIAN     I. 

Francis  I.,  King  of  France,  again  with  a  view  to  reconcile 
the  houses  of  Habsburg  and  of  Valois.  Having  been  again 
left  a  widow  in  1547,  she  went  in  1556  with  her  brother 
Charles  V.  to  Spain,  where  she  died  in  1558.  Before  her 
being  forced  into  the  first  of  these  two  political  marriages 
with  the  old  and  ugly  King  of  Portugal,  there  had  been 
between  her  and  the  above-mentioned  Count  Palatine  Frederic 
an  attachment,  which  was,  however,  abruptly  broken  off  by 
her  proud  brother  Charles.  After  the  death  of  the  King  of 
Portugal  in  1521,  Frederic  again  entertained  sanguine  hopes 
of  an  alliance  with  the  young  royal  dowager ;  but  he  had  at 
last  to  content  himself  with  marrying  one  of  her  nieces,  the 
daughter  of  her  sister  Isabella. 

This  Isabella,  the  second  daughter  of  Philip,  was  married 
in  15 15,  at  the  age  of  fourteen,  to  the  King  of  Denmark, 
Christian  IL,  surnamed  the  Bad,  who  was  expelled  his 
kingdom  in  1523.     She  died  in  1525. 

The  third  Princess,  Mary,  married  in  1521,  at  the  age  of 
sixteen,  Louis  IL,  King  of  Hungary  and  Bohemia,  the  last  of 
the  Jagellons,  who  was  killed  in  1526,  in  the  battle  of  Mohacz, 
against  the  Turks.  Mary,  after  Margaret's  death  in  1530, 
became  Regent  of  the  Netherlands,  from  whence  she  went 
with  her  brother  to  Spain,  where  she  died  in  a  convent  in 
1558,  one  month  after  her  brother.  Mary  was  the  favourite 
sister  of  her  brother  Charles,  and  the  only  person  in  the 
imperial  family  well  inclined  towards  Luther  and  the  Re- 
formation. De  Thou  states  her  to  have  been  a  rigid  and  even 
"austere  moralist,  of  a  courage  far  above  her  sex,  and  the 
most  severe  judge  of  everything  like  impurity.  Our  people," 
he  says,  "  mortified  by  the  frequent  invasions  which  during 
her  Regency  were  made  in  France,  imputed  to  her,  by  all 
sorts  of  impertinent  insinuations  and  licentious  soldiers*  ditties, 
a  connection  with  M.  de  Braben9on  (the  first  Prince  of  Arem- 
berg),  a  man  still  in  his  prime,  but  who  was  even  more  dis- 
tinguished by  his  bravery  and  loyalty  than  by  his  personal 
advantages.  But  she  had  such  a  horror  of  every  such  crimi- 
nality that  she  obstinately  refused  the  Emperor's  entreaties  to 
forgive  one  of  his  favourites,  a  young  man  of  the  highest 


HIS    FAMILY  27 

nobility,  who  had  brought  one  of  her  maids  of  honour  to 
shame.  She  publicly  threatened  that  she  would  have  the 
offender  executed  on  the  spot  if  she  should  ever  meet  him, 
even  if  it  were  at  the  court  of  her  own  brother." 

The  fourth  daughter  of  Philip  the  Handsome  was  Catha- 
rine, born  in  1507,  after  the  death  of  her  father.  She  married, 
in  1525,  John  III.,  King  of  Portugal,  and,  after  being  left 
a  widow  by  him  in  1557,  she  died  likewise  in  Spain  (1578). 
She  was  the  Princess  whom  Charles  V.,  in  1520,  before  his 
election  as  Emperor,  promised  to  the  Elector  Frederic  the 
Wise  for  his  nephew  John  Frederic  the  Magnanimous,  who 
was  afterwards  outlawed  by  him.  The  match  was  sedulously 
urged  on  by  the  Emperor's  brother  Ferdinand  and  the  am- 
bassador Hannaert ;  but  the  plan  failed,  owing  to  the  spread 
of  the  Lutheran  doctrine  in  Saxony.  It  was,  however,  even 
at  a  very  late  period,  recommended  to  the  Emperor  by  the 
Councillor  of  State  Breda.  This  match  might  possibly  have 
prevented  the  bloody  conflict  of  the  two  religions.  It  is 
rather  remarkable  that  this  marriage,  which  would  have  been 
most  auspicious  for  the  interests  of  Germany,  was  not  con- 
cluded by  Austria. 

The  gay  and  gallant  Emperor  Maximilian  had  a  con- 
siderable number  of  illegitimate  children  of  both  sexes.  Four 
sons  and  five  daughters  are  known  with  certainty.  Four  sons 
rose  in  the  Church ;  three  of  them,  however,  without  attaining 
any  great  celebrity.  These  three  were  George,  archbishop 
of  Valencia,  after  having  been  from  1525  to  1539  bishop  of 
Trent,  and  from  1544  to  1557  bishop  of  Liege;  Leopold, 
the  provost  of  Cordova  ;  and  Maximilian  of  Amberg.  George 
is  only  remarkable  for  having  been  the  first  illegitimate 
scion  of  the  house  of  Habsburg  who  bore  the  name  ^'Ab 
Austria." 

The  most  celebrated  natural  son  of  the  Emperor  Maxi- 
milian was  Matthew  Lang  von  Wellenburg,  the  son  of  the 
fair  patrician  lady,  Margaret  Lang,  of  the  Sulzer  family  of 
Augsburg.  The  Emperor  ennobled  him,  and  procured  for 
him  the  bishopric  of  Gurk,  and  always  treated  him  as  a 
favourite  and  as   his  most  confidential   minister.      In   1508 


28  MAXIMILIAN     I. 

Lang  went  to  Cambray,  and  there  joined,  in  Maximilian's 
name,  the  alliance  against  Venice.  In  1510  the  Emperor 
sent  him  to  France  to  Louis  XIL,  with  whom  he  concluded 
the  treaty  against  Pope  Julius  IL  and  the  Holy  League.  In 
1511  and  1512  he  was  sent  to  Italy,  and  succeeded  in  bringing 
about  the  reconcihation  of  the  Pope  with  the  Emperor.  In 
1515,  at  the  great  Vienna  meeting  with  the  two  Kings  of 
Hungary-Bohemia  and  of  Poland,  he  secured  to  Austria,  by 
the  well-known  act  of  settlement,  the  reversion  of  the  first- 
named  twin  crowns.  At  the  outbreak  of  the  Reformation 
he  became  one  of  its  most  bitter  enemies.  In  15 19  he  was 
appointed  Archbishop  of  Salzburg,  and  the  Pope  gave  him 
the  cardinal's  hat.  Lang  was  an  exceedingly  eloquent  and 
adroit  man,  yet  he  was  just  as  famous  for  his  elasticity  of 
conscience  as  for  cleverness.  He  surpassed  in  splendour  all 
the  cardinals  and  archbishops  of  his  time,  and  in  this  respect 
certainly  did  not  belie  his  Caesarean  descent.  He  died,  as 
Cardinal  Archbishop  of  Salzburg,  in  the  reign  of  his  nephew 
Charles  V.,  1540. 

A  striking  likeness  to  the  Emperor,  and  the  parental 
affection  received  at  his  hands  by  Sigismund  von  Dietrich- 
stein,  caused  the  latter  to  be  considered  likewise  as  an  ille- 
gitimate scion  of  Maximilian.  The  mother,  the  beautiful 
Countess  Barbara  von  Thurn,  married  Pancras,  the  first 
baron  of  the  name  of  Dietrichstein,  the  founder  of  the  still 
existing  princely  house  of  that  name.  At  that  meeting  with 
the  Kings  of  Hungary  and  Poland  in  Vienna,  in  1575, 
Maximilian  had  the  marriage  of  his  beloved  Sigismund 
Dietrichstein  with  Barbara  von  Rothal,  baroness  of  Thal- 
berg,  celebrated ;  and  such  splendour  and  magnificence  was 
displayed  at  the  wedding  that  all  the  contemporaries  spoke  of 
it  with  the  highest  admiration.  Maximilian  requested,  even 
in  his  last  will,  that  Sigismund  should  be  buried  at  his  feet  at 
Wienerisch-Neustadt. 

Count  Ludwig  von  Helfenstein,  the  same  whom  in  1525 
the  rioters  in  the  peasants'  war  forced  to  run  the  gauntlet 
through  their  spears,  was  likewise  thought  by  some  to  have 
been  a  son  of  the  "  Last  Knight  of  the  Middle  Ages  " ;  but, 


HIS    FAMILY  29 

according  to  other  and  more  reliable  accounts,  he  was  the 
husband  of  one  of  the  natural  daughters  of  the  Emperor.^ 

The  number  of  these  daughters,  as  we  have  said  before, 
is  known  to  have  been  five.  Their  husbands,  as  far  as  they 
have  been  ascertained,  were  Count  John  of  East  Friesland, 
married  to  Dorothea ;  and  Louis  von  Herlemont,  a  Nether- 
landish lord,  married  to  Anna.  One  of  the  daughters  is 
known  by  her  full  name,  Ottilia  Lang  von  Wellenburg,  a 
sister  of  the  Cardinal  Archbishop  of  Salzburg ;  she  was 
wedded  to  the  patrician  of  Ulm,  John  von  Schad,  to  whom 
she  brought  the  noble  estate  of  Wellenburg.'* 

1  The  Helfensteins  were  a  very  old  Swabian  family.  The  connection 
of  Ludwig  with  the  Emperor  Maximilian  was  through  the  lady  who  un- 
doubtedly was  his  natural  daughter.  The  fact  is  established  among  others 
by  Sattler's  Chronicle. — Translator. 

2  See  Appendix  A  for  samples  of  the  style  and  courtesy  used  in 
Maximilian's  diplomatic  and  private  correspondence. 


3<» 


CHARLES    V. 


CHAPTER   II 

Charles  V.— (1519-1556). 

/. — His  youth  and  education  in  the  Netherlands. 

Maximilian  was  succeeded  by  his  grandson — the  son  of 
the  King  and  Archduke  Philip — Charles  V.,  undoubtedly  the 
greatest  prince  whom  the  house  of  Habsburg  has  produced. 
Whilst  the  romantic,  chivalrous  Maximihan  entirely  belonged 
to  the  middle  ages,  which  terminated  with  him,  Charles  V.  is 
in  every  sense  a  man  of  a  new  era,  a  deep  politician,  and 
a  true  disciple  of  the  statecraft  of  MachiavelU.     Maximilian 
was  all  his  life  restless,  impetuous,  and  adventurous :  Charles 
as  quiet  and  circumspect  as  a  man  could  be.     Maximilian 
was  the  very  type  of  imaginative  enthusiasm,  frequently  over- 
shooting its  own  mark  ;    Charles,  the  man  of  calm,  quietly 
reasoning    common   sense,   and    of    most    cautious   political 
wisdom.     Maximilian's  form  fades  away  in  the  bright  evening 
sun  of  the  expiring  poetical  middle  ages  :    Charles  meets  our 
eye,  stern  and  melancholy,  in  the  dawn  of  a  new,  matured, 
and  coolly  calculating  age.      The  greatest   question   of  the 
sixteenth  century,  the  Reformation,  was  looked  upon  by  the 
grandfather  as  a  mere  parsons'  quarrel :    to  the  other  it  ap- 
peared as  a  dangerous  rebellion ;   and  he  opposed  the  move- 
ment of  the  new  religious  spirit,  against  which  the  Pope  had 
hurled  the  spiritual  thunderbolt  of  his  anathema,  with  the 
ban  of  the  Empire,  and  with  all  the  worldly  expedients  of  the 
new  system  of  polity.     Neither  Maximilian  nor  Charles  com- 
prehended the  true  importance  of  the  religious  question  or 
recognised  the  necessity  of  placing  himself  at  the  head  of 
the  movement,  to  guide  it,  and  to  carry  it  out  in  a  national 
German  spirit  and  for  the  interests  of  Germany.    Maximilian, 


NAPOLEON    ON    CHARLES   V.  3t 

in  his  gay  carelessness,  underrated  its  importance :  Charles, 
in  his  melancholy  scruples,  overrated  it.  He  saw  in  the  new 
heresy  only  the  great  danger  to  the  ancient  political  system  of 
the  German  Empire,  and  on  this  ground  he  tried  to  wage  a 
war  of  extermination  against  it.  Neither  of  them  was  equal 
to  the  idea  that  a  new  system  was  to  be  introduced — a  com- 
pact unity  of  Germany,  a  unity  in  that  form  which  England 
alone  of  all  the  States  of  Europe  has  succeeded  in  establishing. 
Just  as  England,  on  the  basis  of  the  unity  which  was  centred 
in  its  parUament,  separated  herself  from  the  Pope,  and  made 
head  against  him,  so  Germany  also  ought  to  have  done.  But 
Charles  aimed  at  sovereignty  after  the  example  of  France,  and 
his  plan  was  to  keep  up  the  connection  with  the  Roman 
Pontiff.  As  this  plan  was  baffled  by  the  Elector  Maurice, 
the  Emperor  succumbed  under  the  old  aristocracy  of  princes. 
He  was  obliged  to  consent  to  a  religious  compromise.  This 
completely  altered  his  position,  and  his  new  position  was  a 
false  one.  He  could  no  longer  be  looked  upon  as  the  secular 
protector  of  the  Church,  in  which  light  he  wished  to  be  con- 
sidered, according  to  the  old  political  system  of  the  Empire, 
for  he  had  forfeited  this  title  after  having  allowed  another 
Church  besides  the  old  one  to  be  tolerated  in  Germany.  The 
very  thing  which  he  had  tried  to  prevent  was  brought  about, 
notwithstanding  all  his  endeavours  to  the  contrary.  The  old 
system  in  which  Church  and  State,  hierarchy  and  feudality, 
had  been  most  closely  interwoven,  was  now  dissolved ;  a 
holy  Roman  Empire  was  henceforth  an  anachronism  and  a 
nonentity. 

Napoleon  took  a  very  correct  view  of  the  position  of 
Charles  V.  According  to  the  reminiscences  of  Chancellor 
Müller  of  Weimar,  he  expressed  himself,  in  1813,  during  a 
ride  from  Weimar  to  Eckardsberge,  to  the  following  effect: 
"  Charles  V.  would  have  acted  wisely  and  well  to  have  placed 
himself  at  the  head  of  the  Reformation.  As  the  temper  of 
the  people  then  was,  it  would  have  been  an  easy  thing  for 
him  to  obtain  by  its  means  absolute  rule  over  the  whole 
of  Germany." 

The   cradle   of  the   Habsburg  dynasty  had  been  in  the 


32  CHARLES     V. 

mountains  of  Southern  Germany,  and  near  the  lakes  of 
Switzerland.  Rodolph  had  transferred  it  eastward  to  the 
valley  of  the  Danube,  and  there  the  foundation  of  the  power 
of  the  house  was  laid.  The  meteor  Cha-rles,  which  shed  the 
greatest  lustre  on  that  house,  rose  from  the  west,  from  the 
German  Ocean. 

Charles  V.  was  born  24th  February,  1500,  at  Ghent. 
The  man,  who  was  to  become  the  ruler  of  two  hemispheres, 
came  into  the  world  quite  unexpectedly  ;  his  Spanish  mother 
being  surprised  by  the  pangs  of  labour  during  a  festivity  at 
court. 

Ann  Sterel,  the  wife  a  German  gentleman  at  Philip's 
court,  a  lady  of  good  sense,  of  an  excellent  heart,  and  of 
great  knowledge  of  the  world,  became  his  nurse.  After  the 
prince  was  weaned  she  remained  in  charge  of  him  whilst  his 
parents  travelled  to  Spain.  Charles's  brother  Ferdinand  was 
born  in  1503  in  Spain.  The  chief  governess  of  Charles  was 
the  Countess  de  Chimay.  This  lady  was  from  the  same 
Netherlandish  family  of  Croy,  to  which  also  Charles  de  Croy, 
his  governor,  and  William  de  Chievres,  his  governor-in-chief 
and  lieutenant-general  of  the  Netherlands,  belonged,  whom 
Charles's  father  Philip  appointed  when  he  went  to  Spain. 

Charles  was  surrounded  by  princely  splendour  even  in  his 
cradle.  His  father  made  him  at  his  christening,  8th  April, 
1500,  a  present  of  the  duchy  of  Luxemburg,  from  which  the 
prince  had  his  first  title,  until,  in  1506,  he  inherited,  on  the 
death  of  his  father,  that  of  King  of  Spain.  His  old  great- 
grandmother,  the  widow  of  Charles  the  Bold,  Margaret  of 
York,  who  had  been  a  contemporary  of  the  wars  of  the  Roses, 
presented  to  him  the  figure  of  a  child  in  massive  silver,  carry- 
ing, on  a  golden  salver,  a  set  of  jewels.  His  aunt  Margaret, 
Duchess  of  Savoy,  the  sister  of  his  father,  and  afterwards 
regent  of  the  Netherlands,  gave  him  a  golden  plate,  likewise 
spread  with  pearls  and  precious  stones ;  WilHam  de  Chievres, 
a  suit  of  silver  armour  inlaid  with  gold,  the  breastplate  of 
which  was  decorated  with  a  large  phoenix  ;  the  Lord  John  of 
Berghcn,  a  golden  sword ;  the  city  of  Ghent,  a  most  in- 
geniously wrought  ship  of  silver ;  several  abbots,  the  Old  and 


HIS     YOUTH    AND     EDUCATION  33 

New  Testaments,  the  binding  of  which  was  of  massive  gold, 
studded  with  pearls  and  jewels.  But,  with  all  this  princely 
magnificence,  Charles's  youth  in  the  Netherlands,  where  he 
was  reared,  was  very  cheerless  and  gloomy.  No  parents' 
love  exercised  its  genial  influence  over  the  tender  years  of  his 
infancy  and  boyhood.  When  he  was  six  years  old  his  father 
Philip  died  suddenly  in  Spain,  far  away  from  him,  after 
having  lain  on  a  sick  bed  only  seven  days,  ""aGth  September, 
1506.  His  mother  Joan,  daughter  of  Ferdinand  of  Arragon 
and  Isabella  of  Castile,  likewise  lived  in  Spain,  and  a  deep 
gloom  had  settled  on  her  mind.  Jealousy  of  her  husband  had 
made  her  melancholy.  This  jealousy,  indeed,  was  so  violent 
that  she  poisoned  him ;  a  fact  which  has  been  fully  ascer- 
tained from  a  letter  written  by  one  of  Philip's  generals. 
This  account  has  been  published  by  Hormayer  in  the 
"Historical  Annual"  for  the  year  1849,  the  last  which  he 
edited. 

The  writer  of  the  letter  very  probably  was  that  Count 
von  Fürstenberg  who  commanded  the  3,000  German  soldiers 
with  whom  Philip,  in  the  spring  of  1506,  embarked  for  Spain. 
Hormayer  had  before  published  in  the  "  Austrian  Plutarch  " 
a  letter  of  his  to  the  Emperor  Maximilian,  dated  12th  May, 
1506,  in  which  the  following  passage  occurs:  "The  worst 
enemy  whom  my  gracious  lord  of  Castile  (Philip)  has  besides 
the  King  of  Arragon — [his  father-in-law,  Ferdinand,  after 
Isabella's  death,  1504,  quarrelled  with  him  about  the  regency 
of  Castile] — is  the  Queen,  his  Highness's  spouse.  She  is 
more  wicked  than  I  can  write  to  your  Imperial  Majesty,  and 
I  have  no  doubt  your  Majesty  has  found  that  out  much 
better  than  I  am  able  to  do.  Her  Highness  will  send  to- 
morrow all  the  ladies,  married  and  unmarried,  back  to  Brabant 
whom  the  King  has  brought  with  her ;  she  does  not  wish  to 
have  them  about  her,  except  one  old  woman,  and  her  she 
keeps." 

The  letter  of  a  later  date  by  the  same  writer,  communi- 
cated by  Hormayer  in  the  "  Historical  Annual "  of  1849,  runs 
thus  :  "  The  good  King  Philip  was  suspected  by  his  Queen 
of  an  amour,  and  that  without  reason,  as  was  afterwards  dis- 
VOL.   I  3 


34  CHARLES    V. 

covered ;  but  she  took  it  so  much  and  grievously  to  heart  that 
she  at  last  resolved  to  kill  her  lord  and  husband  in  revenge  for 
it.  As  women  are  so  easily  moved  and  impelled,  according  to 
the  old  adage,  *  that  they  have  long  robes  but  short  counsels,* 
thus  it  also  happened  that  she  got  so  utterly  beside  herself  as 
to  poison  her  good  and  innocent  husband,  although  it  was  to 
her  own  loss.  Shortly  after,  she  found  out  that  she  had  been 
wrong,  and  that  she  had  allowed  her  quick  temper  to  get  the 
better  of  her.  Then  she  began  to  rue  what  she  had  done,  and 
found  no  rest,  tormented  as  she  was  by  the  furies  of  remorse ; 
and,  as  she  had  her  husband  no  more,  and  could  not  get  him 
back,  she  began  to  love  him  twice  as  well  as  before,  and 
grieved  and  fretted  so  vehemently  that  at  last  she  went  out  of 
her  mind  altogether,  and  became  quite  childish.  People  did 
not  dare  at  first  to  inform  the  Emperor  Maximilian  of  this 
murder,  nor  even  of  the  death  of  his  son  ;  but  when  he  had 
been  dead  for  some  time  accounts  were  sent,  from  one  post  to 
another,  announcing  his  illness,  and  that  he  was  getting  worse 
and  worse,  until  at  last  the  whole  secret  was  disclosed." 

Having  thus  lost  her  beloved  husband  by  her  own  fault,  in 
the  tenth  year  of  their  married  life,  grief  for  his  death  reduced 
her  more  and  more  to  a  state  of  insanity,  as  all  her  passionate 
love  for  him  had  now  revived.  She  ordered  his  body  to  be 
taken  from  the  tomb,  and  had  him  placed  in  her  chamber, 
splendidly  attired,  and  encased  in  a  glass  coffin.  Here  she 
looked  at  him  for  hours,  embraced  his  embalmed  remains,  and 
watched  day  and  night  over  him.  Still  possessed  by  her 
inveterate  jealousy,  she  would  not  allow  anyone  of  her  own 
sex  to  enter  the  room.  At  last  she  was  with  difficulty  pre- 
vailed upon  to  allow  the  body  to  be  placed  in  a  vault  in  the 
Charterhouse  of  Millaflores,  near  Burgos.  But  as  soon  as 
this  was  done  her  mind  completely  gave  way.  Her  father, 
Ferdinand,  during  a  former  absence  of  her  husband  in  the 
Netherlands,  had  shut  her  up  as  a  prisoner  at  Medina  del 
Campo.  She  now  fancied  that  she  was  again  a  prisoner  and 
kept  away  from  her  beloved  one.  Her  people  were  at  last 
obliged  to  urge  her  to  have  the  vault  opened  once  more,  that 
ehe  might  convince  herself  of  Philip's  death.    She  had  it  done. 


HIS     YOUTH    AND     EDUCATION  35 

but  took  the  coffin  now  with  her  in  her  travels.  She  travelled 
at  night  with  burning  torches,  the  corpse  of  her  husband  being 
driven  before  her  on  a  bier.  Strange  to  say,  a  prophecy  had 
foretold  to  Philip  that  he  should  travel  in  his  kingdom  longer 
after  his  death  than  during  his  life.  Joan  continued  to  console 
herself  with  a  tale  which  a  Carthusian  friar  had  once  told  her, 
"  that  there  had  once  been  a  king  who  had  come  to  life  again 
after  fourteen  years."  She  waited  like  a  child  for  that  happy 
day ;  but  when  it  came  at  last,  and  she  found  herself  bitterly 
disappointed,  she  fell  into  hopeless  insanity,  and  had  to  be 
confined  in  a  tower.  Here  she  passed  the  remainder  of  her 
days,  surrounded  by  cats,  with  which  she  amused  herself. 
She  survived  her  husband  fifty  years,  dying  about  nine 
months  before  the  abdication  of  her  son  Charles,  who,  pro- 
perly speaking,  during  her  lifetime  reigned  in  Spain  only  in 
her  name,  all  the  royal  decrees  being  headed  by  the  joint 
names  of  Donna  Juana  and  Don  Carlos. 

Charles  V.  was  likewise  separated  from  his  brother  Fer- 
dinand, who  was  educated  in  Spain.  His  sisters  only, 
especially  his  favourite  sister  Mary,  were  brought  up  with 
him.  Their  education  was,  as  has  been  said  before,  super- 
intended by  their  aunt  Margaret,  the  Duchess  Dowager  of 
Savoy,  whom  her  father  the  Emperor  Maximilian  had,  in 
1506,  made  Regent  of  the  Netherlands.  There  was  appointed 
under  her,  as  Lieutenant-general  of  the  Netherlands  and 
chief  governor  of  Prince  Charles,  who  was  then  six  years  old, 
William  de  Croy,  baron  de  Chievres  and  Arschott,  whose 
nephew,  Charles  de  Croy,  acted  as  under-governor.  William 
de  Chievres  had,  of  all  persons,  the  greatest  influence  upon 
the  disposition  of  Charles ;  from  his  bringing  up,  as  many 
lights  as  shades  have  resulted  in  the  character  of  this 
remarkable  prince,  who  appeared  upon  the  world's  stage 
at  one  of  the  most  critical  periods  of  the  history  of 
Germany. 

Some  very  interesting  letters  are  extant  from  the  time 
of  Charles's  earliest  boyhood.  Charles  de  Croy  wrote  from 
Mechlin,  7th  October,  1506,  very  shortly  after  Philip's  death, 
to  the  old  Emperor  Maximilian  in  Germany : 

3—2 


36  CHARLES    V. 

"  Sire, — In  order  to  offer  you  some  consolation,  I  certify  to  you  that 
your  grandson  and  granddaughters  are  in  very  good  health,  and  are  having 
a  pleasant  time,  as  is  natural  to  them.  I  have  told  them  of  their  misfor- 
tune— at  which  they  are  grieved  as  children  would  be,  and  more  than  I 
thought — and  amongst  other  things  that  they  have  still  a  kind  parent  in 
you.  Sire,  I  recommend  them  to  you,  and  hope  that  your  affection  for 
them  may  be  increased." 

On  gth  April,  1507,  the  Emperor  writes  to  his  daughter 
Margaret  (in  French) : 

"  I  am  very  glad  that  you  find  our  children  so  pretty,  and  that  they 
long  after  me ;  tell  them  that  I  shall  soon  come,  but  that  I  am  now 
prevented  from  being  of  any  service  to  them.  To-day  I  issue  letters  to 
the  whole  Empire,  calling  it  to  arms,  and  I  promise  help  to  the  Pope.  The 
King  of  Arragon  is  going  to  Spain  immediately  with  his  wife,  whom  the 
devil  has  got  with  child.  She  is  about  four  months  gone.i  The  plan  is  to 
make  war  against  the  King  of  Castile  (Charles  V.)  and  others,  to  drive 
them  out  of  the  country  and  then  to  take  possession  of  it.  For  the  Queen 
his  daughter  is  and  remains  fantastica — brulez,  ma  chere  fille,  cette  lettre 
de  votre  bon  pere  Maximilien." 

On  the  19th  September,  1508,  Chievres  writes  (in  French): 

"Your  Majesty's  grandson,  and  the  Princesses  his  sisters,  are  coming 
on  very  well  indeed,  and  it  is  really  astonishing  how  beautiful  they  grow 
up.  In  obedience  to  your  Majesty's  wishes,  I  will  take  care  that  he  shall 
learn  the  Brabantian  language  as  soon  as  his  tongue  is  sufficiently  pliant 
for  it,  and  that  he  shall  learn  how  to  read  it." 

The  principal  instructor  of  the  prince  in  the  languages, 
and  especially  the  classical  ones,  as  also  in  religion,  was  the 
learned  Dean  of  Louvain,  Adrian  Florentius  of  Utrecht,  who, 
after  the  death  of  Leo  X.  was  raised  by  his  pupil  to  the  papal 
chair,  which  he  occupied  from  the  gth  of  January,  1522  to  the 
15th  of  September,  1523,  as  Adrian  VI.  Adrian  had  the 
greatest  difficulty  in  inculcating  into  his  pupil  the  rudiments 
of  Latin.  In  vain  he  represented  to  the  prince  that  the 
Emperor,  his  grandfather,  insisted  above  everything  upon  his 
speedily  acquiring  this  language.  Charles  answered,  with 
boyish  warmth,  "  But  my  grandfather  has  not  surely  ordered 
you  to  make  a  schoolmaster  of  me."  This  aversion,  how- 
ever, vanished  when  the  mind  of  the  prince  was  sufficiently 
matured  to  comprehend  what  treasures  the  language  of  the 

1  Germaine  de  Foix,  Ferdinand's  last  wife,  shortly  afterwards  mis- 
carried, whereby  Ferdinand  the  Catholic  was  baffled  in  his  wish  of  exclud- 
ing his  grandson  Charles  through  a  son. 


HIS    YOUTH    AND    EDUCATION  37 

Romans  contained.  Adrian  had  no  less  difficulty  in  inducing 
the  prince  to  get  through  the  whole  of  the  Bible.  The  boy 
wanted  to  have  to  do  with  nothing  but  the  heroic  books — 
Judges,  Kings,  and  Maccabees.  Thucydides,  of  all  authors, 
became  his  greatest  favourite,  although  he  only  read  him  in 
the  French  translation  of  Bishop  Claude  of  Marseilles.  He 
used  to  keep  him  under  his  pillow  as  Alexander  did  the 
"  Iliad,"  and  this  Greek  historian  afterwards  always  accom- 
panied him  to  the  camp. 

Even  before  his  accession,  at  the  age  of  sixteen,  Charles 
spoke  six  languages  with  great  fluency.  He  used  to  say, 
when  still  a  youth,  "  that  he  learned  Italian  to  speak  with 
the  Pope ;  Spanish,  to  speak  with  his  mother ;  English,  to 
speak  with  his  aunt  (Catharine  of  Arragon,  Queen  of 
Henry  VIII.  of  England) ;  Flemish,  to  speak  with  his  friends 
and  playfellows;  French,  to  speak  with  himself;  and 
German,  in  order  to  be  qualified  to  become  Emperor." 

His  two  other  instructors  appointed  by  De  Chievres, 
besides  Adrian  of  Utrecht,  were  Charles  Cernio,  a  Nether- 
lander, who  infused  into  him  that  love  of  travelling  which 
during  the  whole  of  his  life  remained  a  prominent  feature  of 
his  character;  and  the  Castilian  Antonio  Vacca,  a  learned 
lawyer. 

The  prince  at  an  early  age  showed  great  proficiency  in  all 
manly  and  chivalrous  sports,  being  in  this  respect  a  perfect 
counterpart  of  his  grandsire,  whom  he  also  emulated  in 
gallantry  towards  the  fair  sex,  only  that  he  carried  on  his 
intrigues  with  much  greater  secrecy. 

William  de  Chievres  was  an  exceedingly  rigorous 
governor,  insisting  with  inexorable  tenacity  upon  the  prince's 
doing  everything  to  acquire  business  habits.  Charles  was 
not  once  allowed  to  stay  away  from  the  sittings  of  the  Council 
of  State,  where  he  generally  had  to  act  as  secretary.  Chievres 
slept  in  the  prince's  room,  who  was  obliged  by  him  imme- 
diately to  open  the  despatches  v/hich  might  arrive  at  any 
hour  of  the  night ;  and,  whether  they  were  important  or  not, 
briefly  to  state  his  opinion  in  the  margin.  Whilst  thus  intro- 
ducing Charles  into  the  routine  of  business,  he  broke  his 


38  CHARLES    V. 

wayward  and  restless  disposition.  The  liveliness  of  the  youth 
changed  into  gravity,  and  all  the  passions  of  his  ardent  soul 
became  subordinate  to  one — the  ambition  of  showing  himself 
worthy  of  his  princely  calling.  An  instance  is  recorded  of 
Charles's  uncommon  liveliness,  which  happened  when  his 
grandfather  brought  with  him  to  Mechlin  the  celebrated 
painter  Lucas  Cranach,  who  was  to  paint  for  the  Emperor 
the  portrait  of  his  grandson.  The  prince,  at  that  time  in  his 
eighth  year,  at  first  baffled  every  endeavour  of  the  artist  to 
take  his  likeness,  and  would  not  keep  quiet  for  one  moment. 
At  last  his  tutor  Adrian  hit  upon  the  plan  of  suspending 
against  the  wall  opposite  a  splendid  set  of  arms  by  the  side  of 
the  portrait  of  the  King  of  France.  From  that  moment  the 
Prince  kept  his  keen  glance  steadily  fixed  upon  the  lineaments 
of  the  hereditary  enemy  of  the  house  of  Burgundy  and  upon 
the  arms.  Charles  had  not  yet  completed  his  fifteenth  year 
when  he  was  told  that  the  Count  of  Angouleme,  afterwards 
King  Francis  I.,  had  taken  away  by  force  Claude,  the 
daughter  of  Louis  XIL  of  France,  to  whom  he  was  himself 
affianced.  He  merely  remarked  :  *'  Well,  do  you  think  that  I 
ought  to  be  angry  at  it  ?  On  the  contrary,  I  am  very  glad. 
Now,  as  I  am  no  longer  bound  to  the  French  by  any  tie,  I 
may  hope  one  day  to  make  war  against  them  to  my  heart's 
content." 

Ambition  at  an  early  age  threw  Charles's  mind  back  on 
its  own  resources.  A  profound  reserve,  a  spirit  entirely  living 
within  itself,  independent  of  all  but  its  own  intrinsic  energy, 
soon  showed  itself  as  the  groundwork  of  his  character.  The 
gloomy  sadness  of  his  mother,  which  in  a  wonderful  manner 
was  blended  in  him  with  the  levity  of  his  gay  father,  grew 
more  and  more  upon  him  the  more  his  mind  became  matured. 
There  was  evidently  more  of  the  Spaniard  than  of  the  German 
in  him.  The  grave  business  to  which  he  was  kept  when  still 
a  youth,  and  his  isolation  within  the  cold  barriers  of  royal 
pomp,  with  no  loving  parents  near  him  to  cheer  his  tender 
years,  brought  out  even  more  forcibly  the  natural  melancholy 
of  his  disposition. 

Charles,  at  the  age  of  scarcely  eighteen,  one  day  made  his 


ACCESSION  :     NETHERLANDS    AND     SPAIN  39 

appearance  at  a  great  tournament  in  Valladolid.  On  his 
blank  shield  only  the  word  ^^Nondiim"  was  written.  After- 
wards his  motto  was  "  Phis  ultra  !  "  Ludovico  Murliano, 
who  had  suggested  it  to  him,  got  the  cardinal's  hat  for  it. 
The  ^^  Plus  ultra,''  with  the  pillars  of  Hercules,  was  placed  by 
Charles  on  his  coins  and  his  seals,  with  the  legend  underneath, 
**  Sobrie,  Juste  et  pie  "  He  also  used  the  motto,  "/  a7id  the 
right  moment  against  any  two  of  them."  His  coat  of  arms  was 
charged  with  two  spheres.  Yet  all  his  royal  splendour  left 
him  unsatisfied.  The  monarch  whom  a  Persian  ambassador 
once  addressed  as  "the  King  who  had  the  sun  for  his  hat" 
passed  through  life  joyless.  This  feeling  of  void  grew  so 
intense  towards  the  end  of  his  life  that,  having  with  most 
bitter  mortification  arrived  at  the  conviction  of  the  vanity  of 
all  human  ambition,  tired  of  the  greatness  of  this  world  and 
of  the  pomp  of  royalty,  he  resigned  all  his  lustrous  crowns  to 
retire  into  the  devotional  sohtude  of  a  small  monastery  of 
Jeromites  in  Spain.  Charles,  after  being  all  his  life  a  poli- 
tician, ended  as  a  hermit.  He  exchanged  his  two  favourite 
authors,  the  old  heathen  Thucydides  and  the  modern  heathen 
Machiavelli,  one  of  whose  books  he  constantly  carried  about 
him  in  his  pocket,  for  St.  Augustine  and  St.  Bernard.  His 
ardent  ambition  was  cooled  down ;  but  the  fundamental  type 
of  his  nature,  melancholy,  outlasted  the  passion  which  had 
gnawed  him  during  the  whole  of  his  worldly  career. 

2. — Accession  in  the  Netherlands  and  in  Spain,  and  election 
as  Emperor. 

At  the  age  of  fifteen,  in  1515,  Charles  undertook  the 
government  of  the  Netherlands,  which,  being  the  land  of 
his  birth,  he  all  his  life  continued  to  prefer  to  any  other. 
The  23rd  of  January,  15 16,  marked  the  death  of  Ferdinand 
the  Catholic,  his  grandfather  on  the  mother's  side,  who  had 
until  now  carried  on  the  regency  of  Castile.  Charles  now  set 
out  (i2th  of  August,  1517)  for  his  newly  inherited  kingdom — 
the  country  of  the  strictest  Roman  orthodoxy,  the  country  of 
the  Inquisition,  whose  King  bore  the  emphatic  title  of  "  The 


40  CHARLES     V. 

Catholic."  He  embarked  at  Middleburg  in  company  with 
his  sister  Eleanora  and  William  de  Chievres,  who  was  now 
placed  at  the  head  of  his  court  as  lord  chamberlain.  On  the 
20th  of  September,  151 7,  Charles  landed  at  Villa  Viciosa  in 
Asturia  ;  but,  on  account  of  the  plague  having  broken  out 
there,  he  returned  to  Santander,  from  whence  he  went  by 
Burgos  and  Valencia  to  Tordesillas  near  Valladolid  to  his 
mother,  who,  notwithstanding  her  derangement,  was  exceed- 
ingly rejoiced  to  see  him. 

The  first  governmental  act  of  Charles  in  Spain  was  the 
removal  of  his  brother  the  Infant  Ferdinand,  at  that  time  not 
more  than  fourteen  years  old,  and  who  had  until  then  been 
brought  up  at  Valladolid.  He  was  sent  to  the  Netherlands, 
because  Charles  had  ascertained  that  the  young  prince  had 
been  egged  on  to  intrigues  against  him,  the  King.  The 
motives  which  caused  him  to  remove  his  brother  guided  him 
also  in  the  dismissal  of  the  aged  Cardinal  Archbishop  of 
Toledo  and  Grand  Inquisitor  Ximenes,  who  had  succeeded 
Ferdinand  the  Catholic  in  the  regency  of  Spain,  and  had 
reduced  the  Spanish  grandees  to  obedience  by  a  militia  of 
30,000  burghers.  Charles,  at  the  suggestion  of  Chievres, 
sent  word  to  the  cardinal  at  Valladolid  that  his  merits  were 
so  great  that  Heaven  only  could  reward  them,  and  that  he 
therefore  allowed  him  to  end  his  days  in  quiet  in  his  see. 
The  cardinal  was  so  chagrined  at  this  sarcastic  message  that 
he  died  a  few  hours  after  having  received  it,  8th  November, 

1517,  without  having  seen  Charles.  He  had  reached  the 
advanced  age  of  eighty-one  years.     On  the  4th  of  January, 

1518,  the  young  King  held  at  Valladolid  his  first  Castilian 
Diet ;  and  in  Alay,  at  Saragossa,  the  first  for  Arragon.  After 
this  he  remained  in  Spain  until  the  spring  of  1520.  In  the 
meanwhile  his  other  grandfather,  Maximilian,  the  German 
Emperor,  had  died.  Charles  was  just  staying  at  Barcelona 
when,  in  the  beginning  of  the  year  1519,  he  received  the  news 
of  his  death,  on  which  he  immediately  took  measures  for  ob- 
taining the  imperial  crown  of  Germany,  for  which  Francis  I., 
the  French  King,  was  his  rival  competitor.  Charles  accord- 
ingly sent  his  ambassadors  to  Frankfort,  where  the  election 


ACCEPTS     THE     CROWN     OF     GERMANY  4! 

was  to  take  place.  He  availed  himself  for  this  purpose  of  his 
connection  with  the  celebrated  bankers  Fugger  at  Antwerp, 
who  were  a  branch  of  the  great  Augsburg  firm :  his  agents 
were  ordered  to  do  as  the  delegates  of  the  French  King  did — 
they  bribed  the  electors.  The  election  cost  852,989  florins.^ 
The  German  princes,  who  so  bitterly  reviled  the  Pope  for 
having  sent  to  them  the  hateful  vendor  of  indulgences  Tetzel, 
to  extort  money  for  "  the  Roman  grace,"  now  took  money 
themselves.  The  Elector  Palatine  was  paid  40,000  florins  for 
his  vote.  Frederic  the  Wise  of  Saxony  alone  did  not  debase 
himself;  he  returned  the  considerable  sum  of  money  which 
the  Spanish  ambassadors  sent  to  him.  They  then  begged 
him  that  he  would  allow  them  to  distribute  part  of  it  among 
his  courtiers.  Frederic,  however,  answered,  "  I  cannot  forbid 
them  to  accept  what  is  offered  to  them,  but  whoever  takes 
even  one  florin  will  leave  my  house  to-morrow."  Charles 
could  not  prevail  upon  Frederic  the  Wise  to  take  anything  for 
his  vote  but  the  promise  of  giving  one  of  his  own  sisters  to 
Frederic's  nephew,  the  same  who  was  afterwards  known  as 
John  Frederic  the  Magnanimous,  and  who  lost  his  electorate 
in  the  battle  of  Mühlberg.  The  Fuggers  did  then  what  the 
Rothschilds  have  been  in  the  habit  of  doing  since ;  they  pro- 
moted as  much  as  possible  the  election  of  Charles  by  protest- 
ing the  French  bills  of  exchange  and  honouring  none  but  the 
Spanish  ones. 

At  first  the  German  electors  had  hit  upon  the  expedient  of 
offering  the  crown,  not  to  either  of  the  two  powerful  rivals, 
but  to  Frederic  the  Wise.  He,  however,  declined  it.  He  was 
fifty-six  years  of  age,  and,  being  a  really  wise  man,  he  felt 
diffident  of  the  sufficiency  of  his  own  strength  for  carrying 
such  a  heavy  burden  as  the  crown  of  Germany.  Thereupon 
the  King  of  Spain  was  proclaimed  on  the  28th  of  June, 
151g.  But  the  Spanish  ambassadors  had,  for  the  security 
of  the  princes,  to  sign  in  the  name  of  their  master  the  first 
"Electoral  Capitulation."     The  good-natured  Germans  quite 

*  Annual  pensions  to  the  amount  of  70,400  florins,  and  a  round  sura  of 
504,060  florins,  to  be  paid  down  at  the  election,  had  been  promised  by 
Maximilian  as  early  as  in.  October,  1518. — Latiz,  State  Papers  of  Charles  V. 


42  CHARLES    V. 

seriously  expected  to  tie  down  by  a  sheet  of  parchment  a 
power  of  such  magnitude  as  was  at  the  command  of  Charles. 
None  of  the  Emperors  before  him  had  possessed  those  im- 
mense territorial  resources  which  were  at  the  disposal  of  the 
heir  of  the  crowns  of  Burgundy  and  Spain.  The  "  Capitula- 
tion "  contained  the  provisions — that  the  Emperor  should 
conclude  no  alliance  with  foreign  powers  nor  declare  any 
war  without  the  consent  of  the  German  electors  and  princes; 
that  he  should  introduce  no  foreign  soldiery  into  Germany ; 
that,  moreover,  no  member  of  the  Empire  was  to  be  put 
under  the  Emperor's  ban  without  the  assent  of  the  princes  in 
council  and  without  being  heard  in  his  defence  ;  that  Charles 
as  soon  as  possible  should  in  person  make  his  appearance 
in  the  Empire,  and  should  reside  there  for  the  greater  part 
of  his  time;  that  all  the  business  of  the  Empire  should  be 
conducted  in  the  German  or  Latin  language  ;  and  lastly,  that 
all  the  offices  in  the  Empire  or  the  court  should  only  be 
filled  by  native  Germans.  The  powerful  heir  of  the  crowns  of 
Burgundy  and  Spain  broke  every  one  of  these  stipulations. 

On  the  2oth  of  May,  1520,  the  newly  elected  Emperor  left 
Spain  with  the  fleet  sent  to  him  from  Flanders.  After  paying 
a  visit  to  Catharine  of  Arragon  in  England,  he  went  to  the 
Netherlands,  landing  at  Flushing,  and  then  proceeded  to 
Bruges,  where  his  aunt  Margaret  and  his  brother  Ferdinand 
received  him. 

On  the  22nd  of  October  Charles  rode  into  Aix  la  Chapelle, 
where,  according  to  ancient  usage,  the  head  of  the  holy 
Roman  Empire  was  to  be  crowned.  He  there  appeared  pale, 
grave,  taciturn,  and  melancholy.  He  had,  as  it  were,  as  his 
symbol,  a  hollow  figure  to  precede  him,  in  which  a  man  was 
walking.  This  figure  represented  Charlemagne,  the  Prince 
who  first  established  the  Roman  Empire  of  the  German  nation. 
The  entry  lasted  from  between  two  and  three  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon  to  eight  o'clock  in  the  evening,  there  being  5,000 
horses  and  3,000  men-at-arms  in  five  divisions,  picked  troops, 
under  the  command  of  Francis  de  Castilalt.  The  procession 
was  headed  by  the  servants  and  the  baggage ;  after  which 
followed  the  princes,  lords,  counts,  and  barons,  nearly  1,000 


TAKES     HIS    OATH    ON     THE     "  CAPITULATION  43 

horses,  all  of  them  dressed,  as  an  old  account  states,  in  the 
King's  colours,  and  most  of  them  in  raiments  of  silk  velvet, 
and  gold  brocade,  and  also  otherwise  embroidered  with  pearls 
and  precious  stones.  They  were  followed  in  their  turn  by  the 
twenty-four  pages  of  the  Emperor  on  horseback,  dressed  in 
parti-coloured  suits;  one  side,  crimson  satin,  trimmed  with 
gold  and  silver  brocade ;  and  the  other,  gold  and  silver 
brocade  trimmed  with  crimson  satin.  After  them  came  the 
master  of  the  horse,  the  kettle-drums,  and  twelve  trumpets ; 
six  persons  who  flung  silver  and  gold  coin  to  the  people ;  the 
herald  with  a  silver-gilt  staff  surmounted  by  an  eagle ;  then 
followed  the  electors,  the  princes,  and  bishops ;  the  Earl 
Marshal  of  the  Empire,  Von  Pappenheim,  with  a  drawn 
sword ;  and  then  the  Spanish  King  Charles,  clad  in  a  suit  of 
armour,  over  which  he  wore  a  coat  of  gold  brocade.  He  was 
mounted  on  a  magnificent  charger,  beautifully  caparisoned 
and  decked  out  with  gold  brocade.  He  showed  his  horseman- 
ship to  great  advantage.  On  his  right  rode  the  Archbishop 
of  Cologne,  and  on  his  left  the  Cardinal  of  Mayence.  After 
Charles  came,  riding  alone,  the  ambassador  of  the  King  of 
Bohemia  and  Hungary,  who  represented  his  master  also  as 
an  elector  of  the  Empire.  Then  came  the  ambassadors  of 
England  and  of  Poland,  the  cardinals  of  Sitten,  Salzburg, 
and  Toledo.  All  these  princes  were  surrounded  by  their 
body-guards  on  foot.  The  Emperor  had  a  hundred  Germans 
dressed  in  velvet  and  in  the  King's  colours,  and  a  hundred 
archers  in  coats  of  silver  brocade,  both  of  these  bodies 
wearing  halberds. 

Charles  took  his  oath  on  the  "  Capitulation."  On  the 
following  day  he  was  crowned  with  great  pomp  and  magnifi- 
cence. He  already  then  began  to  carry  matters  with  a  very 
high  hand ;  he  declared  that  he  was  resolved  to  raise  the 
imperial  dignity  to  its  old  splendour,  and  that  it  was  by  no 
means  his  will  and  intention  that  there  should  be  many 
masters,  but  one  alone.  He  completely  overawed  the  Ger- 
man princes  by  his  proud,  taciturn,  Spanish  grandezza.  The 
old  etiquette  of  the  Empire  left  it  optional  to  address  the 
Emperor  by  the  courtesy  of  "  Imperial  Highness,"  or  "  Im 


44  CHARLES     V. 

penal  Grace,"  or  "Imperial  Majesty;"  but  he  strictly  insisted 
upon  that  of  "  Imperial  Majesty." 

From  Aix  la  Chapelle  Charles  betook  himself  to  Cologne, 
whence  he  summoned  his  first  Diet  to  meet  at  Worms  on 
the  next  Epiphany.  All  the  six  electors  and  many  princes 
of  the  Empire,  secular  and  spiritual,  were  present  here  in 
person.  They  looked  somewhat  poor  by  the  side  of  the 
magnificent  Netherlandish,  Spanish,  and  Italian  lords  whom 
Charles  had  brought  with  him.  The  poorest  of  all  in  appear- 
ance was  that  humble  monk  of  Wittenberg,  who  had  likewise 
been  summoned  to  the  assembly  of  the  great.  But  Luther's 
spirit  at  Worms  conquered  the  spirit  of  Charles,  and  stamped 
upon  the  history  of  the  world  the  new  era  which  dates  from 
that  Diet. 

The  day  appointed  for  the  opening  of  the  Diet  was  the 
28th  of  January,  1521.  Not  without  a  meaning  had  the  fifth 
Charles  selected  for  it  the  fete  of  Charlemagne,  the  first 
Charles.  Luther  arrived  at  Worms  on  the  i6th  of  April. 
On  the  1 8th  he  delivered  his  celebrated  declaration,  which 
will  live  for  ever  in  the  annals  of  the  world,  "  Concerning 
Holy  Writ,  and  the  public,  distinct,  and  clear  reasons  and 
causes,"  &c.  On  the  26th  of  April  he  left  Worms,  and  on  the 
8th  of  May  Charles  issued  the  famous  Edict  of  Worms,  in 
which  he  enhanced  the  papal  anathema  against  the  humble 
monk  by  the  ban  of  the  Empire,  just  as  the  Swabian 
Emperors  had  done  against  Arnold  of  Brescia  and  those  of 
the  house  of  Luxemburg  against  the  Hussites. 

On  this  Charles  returned  from  the  Diet  to  Spain,  taking 
the  same  road  by  which  he  had  come,  through  Flanders  and 
England.  At  Dover,  where  he  landed,  he  was  received  by 
Cardinal  Wolsey.  Henry  VIII.  entertained  the  Emperor 
with  great  magnificence  at  Greenwich,  at  Wolsey's  palace  in 
London,  and  at  Windsor.  At  the  latter  place  Charles  was 
created  Knight  of  the  Garter,  and  a  contract  of  marriage  was 
concluded  between  Charles  and  Henry's  daughter,  then  in  her 
seventh  year.  The  betrothal  was  to  have  been  acted  upon  as 
soon  as  the  Princess  should  have  completed  her  twelfth  year. 
This  infant  bride  was  no  other  than  the  "bloody  Mary,"  who 


THE     FRENCH     WARS  45 

afterwards,  at  the  age  of  thirty-eight,  married  the  Emperor's 
son  Don  Philip,  who  was  her  junior  by  eleven  years. 

The  fleet  with  which  Charles  sailed  from  Southampton  to 
Spain  consisted  of  i8o  Netherlandish  ships;  as  ally  of  the 
King  of  England,  he  very  discreetly  appointed  the  admiral  of 
the  English  fleet,  the  Earl  of  Surrey,  an  imperial  admiral. 

For  nine  years  Germany  did  not  again  see  her  imperial  master, 
Charles  bided  his  time,  true  to  his  motto,  '^  Nondum." 

Charles  left  in  Germany  a  regency,  under  his  brother  the 
Archduke  Ferdinand,  with  whom  the  Elector  Frederic  the 
Wise  of  Saxony  succeeded  in  acquiring  great  influence. 
Whilst  the  religious  movement  was  going  on  in  Germany, 
Charles  thought  of  nothing  but  of  carrying  out  his  vast 
political  plans.  First  of  all  it  was  requisite  to  reduce  Spain 
to  obedience,  and  then  to  begin  the  contest  against  his  prin- 
cipal rival  for  the  object  which  has  remained  the  keystone  of  the 
Habshirg  policy  to  this  very  day — the  conquest  of  Italy — 
which  the  founder  of  the  dynasty,  in  order  to  raise  the  Swiss  haron  to 
the  head  of  the  Germano-Roman  Empire,  had  in  former  times  himself 
made  over  to  the  French. 

3. — The  French  wars — Battle  of  Pavia — Assault  of  Rome — 
Challenge  between  Charles  and  Francis  J. — Siege  of  Vienna 
by  the  Turks  in  1529. 

As  soon  as  the  Emperor  had  gone  to  Germany  for  the 
coronation,  a  rebellion  broke  out  in  Spain,  caused  by  the 
avarice  of  the  Netherlandish  councillors  whom  he  had  there 
appointed,  and  by  the  heavy  taxes  exacted  by  them.  This 
rebellion  Charles  very  adroitly  availed  himself  of  to  introduce 
into  Spain  an  absolute  government,  after  the  pattern  of  that 
which  Francis  had  before  him  established  in  France.  The 
Communeros  of  the  Santa  Junta  of  Castile  had  been  con- 
quered already,  during  Charles's  absence,  near  Villalar,  by 
the  royal  troops,  with  the  help  of  the  nobility ;  and  the  head 
of  the  Junta,  Don  Juan  de  Padilla  of  Toledo  had  been 
executed.  Charles,  on  his  return  to  Spain  (1522),  cut  down 
the  liberties  of  the  Cortes  to  such  a  limit   that  they  could 


46  CHARLES    V. 

no  longer  interfere  with  his  absolutist  tendencies.  He  then 
launched  with  all  his  might  into  the  war  against  France,  for 
which  purpose  he  allied  himself  with  England.  Francis  I. 
was  to  be  forced  to  evacuate  Milan  and  Genoa,  and  to  leave 
Charles  sole  master  of  Italy,  where  Naples  and  Sicily  already 
obeyed  the  Emperor's  sway. 

Charles  had  the  good  fortune  of  being  aided  by  excellent 
commanders  in  war.  He  was  one  of  the  first  modern  princes 
who  succeeded  in  securing  for  himself  the  services  of  able 
generals.  The  Spanish  army  was  commanded  by  Prosper 
Colonna,  of  the  ancient  celebrated  Ghibelline  Roman  house ; 
one  of  whom,  in  the  days  of  Philip  le  Bel  of  France,  had 
boxed  the  ears  of  the  Pope.  Colonna  was  Viceroy  of  Naples. 
He  had  serving  under  him  the  man  who  became  the  first 
captain  of  his  age,  Fernando  de  Avalos,  Marquis  of  Pescara, 
the  husband  of  the  beautiful  Vittoria  Colonna,  to  whom 
Pescara  had  been  affianced  since  his  third  year,  and  who, 
after  his  early  death,  celebrated  his  memory  in  a  spirited 
heroic  poem.  Pescara  was  prudent  and  brave,  but  at  the 
same  time  a  most  stately  and  gallant  man ;  in  his  suit  of  red, 
with  a  short,  sleeveless  black  coat  over  it,  and  wearing  a 
lansquenet's  hat  surmounted  by  large  waving  plumes,  he 
made  a  most  imposing  figure  at  the  head  of  his  Spanish 
arquebusiers,  whom  he  knew  right  well  how  to  command, 
and  whom,  in  fact,  he  had  made  an  invincible  troop.  This 
Spanish  army  under  Colonna  and  Pescara  was  now  joined  by 
the  burly  old  George  of  PVundsberg  with  his  German  lans- 
quenets, for  whom  he  had  caused  two  thousand  peasants  to 
cut  a  road  over  the  roughest  Alps  of  the  Valteline.  Colonna, 
Pescara,  and  Frundsberg  jointly  defeated,  in  1522,  the  French 
and  their  allies,  the  Swiss,  near  Biccocca,  not  far  from  Milan. 
By  this  battle,  which  Charles  won,  and  by  that  of  Marignano, 
which  Francis  I.  had  won  seven  years  before,  the  power  of 
the  Swiss  was  broken  for  ever.  They  henceforth  became  the 
mere  mercenaries  and  praetorians  of  foreign  princes,  and  the 
horn  of  Uri  no  longer  resounded  but  to  call  the  herds  of  cattle 
on  the  Alpine  meadows.  In  1523  the  Constable  Charles, 
Duke  of  Bourbon,  Count  of   Montpcnsicr,  a  cousin  of  the 


BATTLE    OF    PAVIA  47 

King  of  France,  was  induced,  by  a  provocation  received  from 
the  latter,  to  go  over  to  the  Emperor;  and  in  1524  Charles  V., 
with  an  imperial  army,  invaded  Provence,  and  laid  siege  to 
Marseilles ;  but  without  result,  as  the  English  fleet  did  not 
arrive,  and  the  Emperor's  admiral,  Hugo  de  Moncada,  could 
not  keep  the  sea  against  the  French  squadron,  which  was 
commanded  by  the  celebrated  Andrew  Doria. 

In  the  following  year  we  find  Francis  I.  in  Italy,  whither 
he  had  led,  across  Mount  Cenis,  a  numerous  French  army, 
supported  by  8,000  Swiss  and  5,000  German  lansquenets,  the 
so-called  Black  Guard,  which  dated  from  the  times  of  Matthias 
Corvinus.  After  the  conquest  of  Milan  by  Francis,  the  two 
armies  encountered  on  the  banks  of  the  Ticino,  near  Pavia, 
which  town  was  garrisoned  by  imperial  troops  under  Antonio 
de  Leyva.  The  King  of  France  had  taken  a  strong  position 
in  the  park  of  Pavia.  Here  he  was  attacked  by  Pescara, 
Frundsberg,  Bourbon,  and  Charles  de  Lannoy  (Viceroy  of 
Naples  since  the  death  of  Prosper  Colonna,  and  ancestor  of 
the  present  Princes  of  Rheina-Wolbek  in  Prussia).  Frunds- 
berg gathered  his  twenty  troops  of  lansquenets  round  him 
and  spoke  to  them :  *'  My  dear  brothers  and  sons,  we  have 
a  proud  enemy  before  us,  but  we  have  always  beaten  his  men 
and  captains ;  and  now  also,  with  the  help  of  God,  you  will 
do  your  duty  as  honest  Germans !  "  Upon  this  all  the  men 
and  officers  cheerfully  raised  their  hands  and  called  out  that 
he  was  a  father  to  all  of  them,  and  that  they  would  willingly 
lay  down  their  lives  for  him. 

In  the  night  of  the  23rd  of  February,  1525,  Pescara 
ordered  the  wall  of  the  park  to  be  battered.  The  morning 
dawned  before  the  breach  was  yet  made.  It  was  the  Em- 
peror's birthday.  The  breach  being  opened,  Pescara  marched 
against  the  small  palace  of  Mirabella,  which  his  nephew,  the 
Marquis  del  Vorsto,  speedily  took  by  a  spirited  assault.  The 
balance  of  the  victory,  however,  remained  long  undecided, 
until  at  last  Pescara  threw  out,  as  skirmishers,  his  Spanish 
arquebusiers,  with  their  matchlocks,  which  were  still  rested 
on  forks.  Not  one  of  them  missed  his  man  ;  and  the  French 
cavalry — -the  gendarmes  of  the  King — were  thrown  into  con- 


48  CHARLES     V. 

fusion,  which  grew  worse  when  the  imperial  garrison  of  Pavia 
came  out  and  took  them  in  the  rear.  All  now  fled,  even  the 
Swiss,  quite  contrary  to  their  usual  custom;  and  also  the 
Black  Guard,  which  Frundsberg  caused  to  be  cut  down 
nearly  to  the  last  man,  as  a  chastisement  for  their  having, 
as  Germans,  enhsted  under  the  French  king.  In  that  forest- 
garden  of  Pavia  the  flower  of  the  French  chivalry  fell  round 
their  chivalrous  King  Francis,  who,  conspicuous  by  his  glit- 
tering shirt  of  silver  mail  and  his  waving  plume,  made  a 
desperate  resistance.  All  pressed  round  him  to  protect  him ; 
four  marshals  fell  by  his  side,  and  after  them  his  grand 
equerry,  St.  Severin,  whose  duty  it  was  to  ward  off  the 
strokes  which  were  aimed  at  the  King.  The  crowd  was  so 
close  that  there  was  no  room  for  shooting.  Francis,  still  in 
his  saddle,  was  as  if  wedged  in  by  a  wall  of  corpses.  He 
was  just  going  to  cross  a  bridge,  when  his  horse,  struck  by 
a  shot,  fell,  and  rolled  over  him.  The  Spaniards  and  Germans 
now  began  to  quarrel  as  to  which  of  the  two  nations  should 
have  him  for  a  prisoner.  But  Francis,  although  bleeding  in 
his  forehead,  his  hands,  and  his  legs,  continued  to  fight  on 
foot,  striking  down  two  more  of  his  foes.  Nicholas,  Count 
of  Salm,  who  had  attacked  him  with  his  cuirassiers,  and 
wounded  him  in  the  right  hand,  was  stabbed  through  the 
thigh.  All  now  called  upon  the  King  to  surrender,  when 
Pomperant,  a  knight  of  the  Constable  of  Bourbon,  came  up, 
and,  although  Francis  was  disfigured  by  blood  and  dust, 
recognised  the  King  of  France  from  his  chivalrous  defence. 
Falling  on  his  knees  before  Francis,  he  adjured  him  to  sur- 
render to  Bourbon.  The  King,  however,  called  out,  "  I 
know  of  no  Duke  of  Bourbon  but  myself;  I'll  rather  die 
than  surrender  to  the  traitor  Bourbon ;  let  the  Viceroy  of 
Naples  be  summoned." 

As  Lannoy  made  his  appearance  the  King  pledged  himself 
to  him  as  his  prisoner,  offering  in  token  the  gauntlet  of  his 
right  hand.  After  this,  Lannoy  on  his  knees  received  the 
bloody  sword  of  Francis,  to  whom  he  returned  his  own,  with 
the  words,  "  It  is  unseemly  that  such  a  great  King  should 
stand  without  arms  before  a  subject  of  the  Emperor." 


k!     ^ 


^ 


> 


k]  O  1-0 

S  s  ^ 

^  ^  ^ 

o  "^  '-s 

kj  Q<  P 

C^  -^  ^ 

:::) 


k: 


•^ 
^ 


CHARLES    V, 


v  worse  when  the  imperial  garrison  of  Pavia 

^  rear.     All  now  fled,  e  en  the 

'    usual  custom;   and  ;-")-■)  the 

Frundsberg  caused  to  be  cut   down 

chastisement  for  ^^--  h-^--ing, 

.:-,  French  kiriS.      !  'ost- 

.   of  the  French  p^iivalry  iai  round 

.  .ancis,  who,  cQdspKuous  by  his  glit- 

mail  and  his  v,^vli^  plume,  made  a 

■-;•'       sed  roum^  liftrii  to  protect  him  ; 

^       •',   a^d  !^te;^them  his   grand 

equerry,  St.  Severin,  wt^se  dutj^it  ^-a^to  ward  off  the 

strokes  which  were  aimed  at  the  ^n^    ^e  crowd  was  so 

cio3(_  tliat  tbere  was  no  rw)m  for  shoo&ig^  Francis,  still  in 

his  saddle,  was  as  if  we{%ed  in  b^jj:;  a  wall  of  corpses.      He 

was  just  going  to  cross  i^  bridge,  ^e:^  hi^  horse,  struck  by 

a  shot,  fell,  and  rolled  ovei|-him.    T^  ^panjards  and  Germans 

-xn  to  quarrel  as  ^"  which  -of  t^  t^o  v.  hould 

■1  for  a  prisoner.  -nBut  Fra^;) -^jiitKoa.-,  g  m 

forehead,  his  hands,  ^d  his  ]c^>,  ^on^ued  to  iight  on 

'•-  ""'r  down  two  ijjore  of  1^  ffe(?^s.|;^Nicholas,  Count 

'o  had  attadled  him  ^it^  his   cuirassiers,  and 

the  rigKf  hand,  wasKstri^bed  through  the 

criUed  upon  the  Kii^-  t^  surrender,  when 

of  the  Constable  of  !^urbon,  came  up, 

-        -     ■■-''Tured   bj&blood    :.-■'         ^ 

om  his  clival ror 

is,  he  adjur- 

V;nwever,   c„ 

nyself;   I'll 


J  the 

.1 


the  Emperor." 


BATTLE    OF    PAVIA  49 

Francis  was  now  led  to  the  neighbouring  Carthusian  con- 
vent at  Pavia,  where  he  wished  to  pray.  The  first  thing  that 
met  his  eyes  on  entering  the  chapel  was  an  inscription  on  a 
side  altar  taken  from  the  Psalms :  "It  is  good  for  me  that 
I  have  been  afflicted ;  that  I  might  learn  thy  statutes." 
Francis,  smiling,  pointed  out  the  words  to  Lannoy.  He  then 
was  led  to  a  tent,  from  whence  he  wrote  to  his  mother  those 
famous  words,  ^^ Madame,  tout  est  perdu,  saiif  Vhonneitv."  His 
person  was  entrusted  to  the  safe  keeping  of  the  Spanish 
Colonel  Alar9on,  and  he  was  taken  to  the  fortress  of  Pizzighe- 
tone. 

The  Emperor   Charles  was  in   Spain,  in  his  palace  at 

Madrid.      There  he  received,   through   the  commander  De 

Penalosa,  who  was  sent  as  a  courier,  the  news  of  the  great 

victory  of  Pavia,  of  the  captivity  of  the  King,  and  of  the 

complete  conquest  of  Italy.      A  fortnight  after  the  day  of 

Pavia  not  a  Frenchman  was  to  be  seen  in  Italy.     Charles, 

after   having   heard   the   news,   and   received   the   sword   of 

Francis,  remained  speechless  for  some  moments ;  after  which 

he  was  heard  saying  to  himself,  "  The  King  in  my  power,  the 

battle  won  for  me."     Then,  going  to  an  adjoining  room,  he 

knelt  down  in  prayer  before  an  image  of  the  Virgin.     The 

Emperor  wrote  to  Lannoy : 

"  What  you  have  now  to  be  most  diligent  in  is  to  collect  money,  because 
it  is  always  useful ;  I  will  do  the  same  in  this  direction,  &c.  I  do  not  know 
where  to  employ  myself,  unless  it  be  against  the  infidels ;  I  have  always 
been  desirous  of  so  doing,  and  at  this  hour  not  less.  Assist  to  well 
arrange  affairs,  so  that  before  I  become  much  older  I  may  do  that  by 
which  God  may  be  served,  and  that  I  may  not  be  to  blame.  I  call  myself 
old,  for  in  this  case  the  time  which  is  past  seems  to  me  long  and  the 
future  far." 

Henry  VIII.  of  England,  the  Emperor's  ally,  demanded 

neither  more  nor  less  than  that  Francis  should  be  deposed  and 

himself  crowned  King  of  France.    On  the  other  hand,  all  that 

had  been  alienated  from  the  territory  of  the  German  Empire, 

and  especially  the  old  Duchy  of  Burgundy,  was  to  be  ceded  to 

the  Emperor.     But  Charles  would  not  enter  upon  such  a 

treaty  of  partition,  and  England  separated  from  this  alliance 

and  sided  with  France,  whereupon  the  projected  marriage 

between  Charles  and  Mary  Tudor  was  given  up. 

VOL.   I  4 


50  CHARLES    V. 

The  Pope  now,  after  England,  became  Charles's  worst 
enemy.  The  Bishop  of  Rome,  remembering  the  time  of  the 
Hohenstaufen,  was  more  afraid  than  anyone  of  the  excessive 
power  of  the  Emperor.  The  Holy  Father  therefore  allied 
himself  with  all  the  Italian  powers  against  Charles  in  the  so- 
called  Holy  League  of  Cognac.  Clement  VH.  even  tried  to 
gain  over  Charles's  best  general,  the  Marchese  Pescara,  by 
the  offer  of  the  crowns  of  Naples  and  Sicily.  But  Pescara 
remained  true  to  his  master,  and  soon  after  died,  being  not 
more  than  thirty-six  years  of  age,  on  the  29th  of  November, 
1525,  and  was  succeeded  in  the  chief  command  of  the  Em- 
peror's army  by  the  Constable  of  Bourbon. 

Francis  had  requested  to  be  conducted  to  Spain,  where  he 
hoped  in  person  to  receive  better  conditions  from  Charles. 
During  the  passage,  the  ships  having  sailed  from  Genoa  in 
June,  1525,  Doria  with  his  galleys  met  the  squadron  in  the 
Gulf  of  Lyons.  But  the  Viceroy  of  Naples,  who  escorted  the 
King,  called  out  to  Doria  that  it  would  be  death  to  the 
King  if  he  dared  to  make  an  attack.  Upon  this  the  Spanish 
squadron  proceeded  on  its  way,  and  reached  the  coast  of  Spain 
without  any  further  molestation.  Francis  landed  at  Valencia, 
and  he  hoped  now  to  have  an  interview  with  Charles.  But 
Charles  came  not.  Francis  then  wrote  to  him  the  two  follow- 
ing letters,  which  have  been  lately  communicated  in  the 
"  Papiers  d'Etat  du  Cardinal  de  Granvelle  " : 

L 

"  If  my  cousin,  the  Viceroy  of  Naples,  had  given  me  my  liberty  sooner,  I 
should  ere  this  have  made  my  submission.  Having  no  other  comfort 
in  my  misfortune  than  my  faith  in  your  clemency,  and  the  hope  that  you 
will  generously  use  the  fruits  of  your  victory,  I  beg  you  to  deal  with  me 
tenderly,  knowing  that  your  rule  has  always  been  marked  by  honour  and 
magnanimity.  And  if  you  be  pleased  to  deal  witli  me  truly  and  pitifully, 
and  with  treatment  befitting  a  King  of  France,  who  would  become  your 
friend  and  not  die  of  despair,  you  would  gain  a  friend  instead  of  a  useless 
prisoner,  and  make  a  King  your  slave  for  ever.  Therefore,  not  to  weary 
you  any  further  by  this  sorrowful  letter,  I  will  end  by  submitting  myself  to 
your  clemency,  who  have  no  other  wish  than  to  be  called  by  another  name 
than  prisoner. 

"  Your  good  brother  and  friend, 

"  Francis." 


CHARLES    AND     FRANCIS    I.  5I 

IL 

"  Seeing  that  since  the  letter  that  I  have  written  you  it  has  pleased 
you  to  send  me  M.  de  Reux,  who  returns  to  you,  I  have  thought  to  write 
you  this  letter  so  that  it  may  please  you  to  recognise  the  duty  in  which  I 
wish  to  place  myself,  having  sent  to  Madame  my  mother  [Louise  the 
Regent  of  France]  the  decision  I  ought  to  come  to  with  regard  to  my 
deliverance,  begging  you  to  be  so  kind  as  to  receive  it  and  judge  it  as 
an  emperor  would  who  desires  rather  to  do  honour  to  himself  than  hurt 
to  the  one  who  hopes  so  much  mercy  and  kindness  of  you,  and  who  will 
be,  instead  of  your  slave,  ever  your  good  brother,  friend,  and  grateful 

"  Francis.' 

To  this  Charles  made  answer  as  follows  : 

"  I  have  received  your  two  letters,  &c.,  and  everything  is  understood ; 
they  abound  with  good  words,  as  one  would  expect  from  as  virtuous  a 
prince  as  you  are.  But  neither  on  your  part  nor  on  that  of  Madame 
la  Regente,  to  whom,  you  write  me,  you  have  referred,  has  any  answer 
been  given  to  tHe  proposals  I  advanced  ;  neither  have  any  other  overtures 
been  made  to  me.  That  is  not  the  way  to  arrive  at  peace,  which  I  desire 
should  be  general  and  durable,  for  the  sake  of  God  and  also  of  Christianity, 
guarding  my  honour  without  staining  yours,  conserving  my  friends  and 
also  desiring  to  see  you  delivered,  when  you  will  recognise  the  goodwill 
I  have  to  be  and  remain  your  true  brother  and  friend, 

"  Charles." 

Charles  for  a  long  time  made  no  preparation  whatever  to 
see  his  illustrious  prisoner,  although  he  had  him  brought,  in 
the  month  of  August,  to  the  neighbourhood  of  Madrid  for 
better  security.  Francis,  in  September,  fell  sick  with  vexa- 
tion. His  sister  Margaret,  Duchess  of  Alengon,  the  poetess, 
and  friend  of  Calvin,  came  to  see  him,  and  paved  the  way  for 
negotiations.  At  last  Charles  came  and  tried  to  console  the 
captive  King  by  courteously  holding  out  to  him  a  prospect  of 
a  speedy  arrangement.  Francis  recovered  his  health,  but  not 
his  liberty  ;  at  least  not  for  some  time,  as  his  captivity  lasted 
upwards  of  a  year. 

In  Charles's  council  opinions  differed  as  to  what  should  be 
done  with  the  royal  prisoner.  One  party,  to  which  the 
Chancellor  Gattinara  belonged,  advised  the  Emperor  to  treat 
Francis  with  generosity,  which  very  likely  might  destroy  for 
ever  the  seeds  of  dissension.  The  other  party,  comprising 
Lannoy,  the  Duke  of  Alva,  Count  Henry  of  Nassau  (uncle  of 
William  of  Orange),  and  the  Emperor's  most  influential  con« 
fessor,  the  Dominican  Garcia  de  Loaysa,  wished  to  turn  the 

4—2 


52  CHARLES     V. 

occasion  as  much  as  possible  to  advantage.  The  Emperor 
steered  a  middle  course.  As  Francis  ostentatiously  professed 
his  readiness  to  resign  the  crown  of  France,  Charles  decided 
upon  releasing  the  King,  but  with  the  condition  of  his  re- 
nouncing for  ever  Burgundy,  Flanders,  Artois,  and  Italy. 

The  wily  disciple  of  Machiavelli,  for  once  overshooting 
his  mark,  forgot  that  it  was  his  own  policy  to  let  might  go  for 
right,  and  that  therefore  Francis,  when  he  had  once  recovered 
his  might,  would  take  very  good  care  to  recover  his  right  also. 
Francis  was  to  become  Charles's  brother-in-law  by  marrying 
his  sister  Eleanor,  the  Queen  Dowager  of  Portugal.  Francis, 
only  to  escape  from  the  captivity  which  had  become  well-nigh 
intolerable  to  him,  agreed  to  anything  and  everything,  and 
thus  the  peace  of  Madrid  was  concluded,  which  Francis 
signed  on  the  14th  of  January.  But,  with  the  assent  of  the 
Pope,  who  absolved  him  from  the  oath  which  he  was  going  to 
take,  he  had  already  before  recorded  a  solemn  protest  against 
the  validity  of  the  treaty,  which,  it  is  true,  had  been  ex- 
acted from  him  by  force.  Yet  he  took  the  oath  at  a  solemn 
high  mass,  laying  his  hand  on  the  Gospel.  From  thence  he 
went  to  Illescas,  half-way  between  Madrid  and  Toledo,  to  be 
affianced  to  Eleanor.  After  this  the  Emperor  and  the  King 
frequently  met,  were  carried  in  the  same  litter,  and  called 
each  other  brothers.  As  they  took  leave  of  each  other  near  a 
crucifix  which  had  been  set  up  a  little  way  from  Illescas, 
the  Emperor  said,  "  Remember,  my  brother,  what  you  have 
promised  me ;  tell  me  truly,  will  you  keep  the  articles  ? " 
Francis  made  such  an  answer  as  he  thought  it  right  to  make. 
The  Emperor  then  parted  from  him  with  the  words,  *'  There 
is  one  thing  I  beg  of  you,  if  you  do  anyhow  deceive  me,  let  it 
not  be  concerning  your  afBanced  bride — she  would  not  he  able  to 
revenge  lierself.'" 

Francis  now,  accompanied  by  Lannoy,  Alar9on,  and  a 
troop  of  gendarmes,  rode  to  the  frontier,  the  Pyrenees.  As 
the  cavalcade  reached  the  river  Bidassoa,  Marshal  de  Lautrec 
presented  himself  on  the  opposite  bank  with  an  escort  of 
French  horsemen.  In  the  middle  of  the  Bidassoa,  where  the 
two  parties  met  in  the  ferry-boats,  the  King  was  exchanged 


RETURN     OF     FRANCIS     I.  53 

for  his  two  sons,  who  were  to  be  taken  to  Spain  as  his 
hostages.  "  Sire,"  said  Lannoy,  "  your  Highness  is  free;  be 
pleased  now  to  fulfil  what  you  have  promised."  Francis 
hastily  answered,  "All  shall  be  fulfilled."  Then,  after 
embracing  his  two  sons,  to  whom  he  addressed  the  parting 
wish,  "  May  God  protect  you,  my  children,"  he  jumped  into 
the  French  ferry-boat.  On  reaching  the  land,  where  the 
might  was  his,  he  mounted  a  Turkish  charger  which  had  been 
kept  in  readiness  for  him,  and  exclaimed,  "Je  suis  le  roi,  le 
roi!"  After  this  he  started  at  a  gallop  to  St.  Jean  de  Luz, 
and  from  thence  to  Bayonne,  where  his  family  and  the  court 
expected  him.     This  happened  on  the  i8th  of  March,  1526. 

Scarcely  had  the  King  of  France  reached  his  own  country  in 
safety  when  he  sent  his  excuses  to  the  Emperor,  that  he 
should  not  be  able  to  keep  the  treaty,  because  the  States  of  the 
realm  refused  to  give  their  consent  to  the  cession  of  Burgundy.  He 
therefore  offered  to  the  Emperor  a  large  sum  of  money  for  the 
restoration  of  his  sons. 

In  the  same  fortunate  year  (1526)  the  twin  crowns  of 
Bohemia  and  Hungary  devolved  on  the  House  of  Habsburg. 
Louis  n.,  the  last  Jagellon  king  of  those  realms,  husband  of 
Mary,  the  sister  of  Charles  V.  and  Ferdinand,  died  at  the  age 
of  twenty-one,  after  the  battle  of  Mohacz  in  1526,  without 
leaving  any  children ;  when,  according  to  the  provisions  of 
the  Treaty  of  Vienna,  concluded  by  MaximiHan  in  1515,  the 
Archduke  Ferdinand,  husband  of  Ann  Jagellon,  and  brother- 
in-law  of  Louis,  succeeded.  This  was  the  third  of  the  three 
great  marriages  with  heiresses,  the  other  two  being  the 
Burgundian  Mary  and  the  Spanish  Jane,  which  have  raised 
the  power  of  Habsburg-Austria  to  the  first  rank  in  Europe. 
But  it  was  much  easier  to  acquire  than  to  maintain  Hungary. 
Germany  had  thenceforth  to  combat  there  her  principal  foe, 
the  Grand  Turk,  the  terrible  Sultan  Soleyman.^  The  ruler  of 
the  Moslems  allied  himself  with  the  monarch  of  France,  the 
most  Christian  king — whose  other  ally  was  the  Pope — against 
the  Emperor,  whose  exorbitant  power  certainly  all  Europe 
had  now  to  fear.     There  was  really  every  reason  to  believe 

'  Born  1495  ;  died  1566. 


54  CHARLES    V. 

that  Charles  would  restore  the  Germano-Roman  Empire  as  a 
universal  monarchy  after  the  pattern  of  Charlemagne.  The 
fear  of  the  accomplishment  of  such  a  plan,  of  which  the 
young  ambitious  Emperor  was  perhaps  not  unjustly  suspected, 
was  one  of  the  principal  causes  by  which  the  schism  in  the 
German  Church  has  been  nurtured. 

Immediately  after  taking  leave  of  Francis,  Charles  V. 
married,  in  Seville  (15th  of  March),  Isabella,  daughter  of 
Emanuel  the  Great  of  Portugal — a  princess  who  was  con- 
sidered one  of  the  most  beautiful  women  of  her  time.^  He 
remained  in  Spain,  whilst  his  army  accomplished  in  Italy 
one  of  the  boldest  feats  against  the  man  whom  the  Emperor 
in  pubHc  revered  as  the  Holy  Father,  but  against  whom  he 
was  in  his  heart  greatly  incensed  as  against  an  ally  of  France 
who  had  attempted  to  induce  Francis  to  break  the  peace  of 
Madrid,  and  who  had  tried  to  seduce  Pescara  from  his  duty 
by  promising  him  the  viceroyalty  of  Naples.  Charles,  after 
having  been  apprised  of  the  league  of  the  Pope  with  France, 
had,  by  way  of  reprisals  against  him,  suspended  in  Germany 
the  Edict  of  Worms,  thus  allowing  the  German  princes  to 
reform  their  churches  after  Luther's  doctrine  as  their  con- 
sciences might  dictate  to  them.  He  had  asked  them  also  for 
help  against  the  Turks,  expressing  his  belief  that  they  would 
easily  guess  what  Turks  he  meant. 

Bourbon  was  still  stationed  with  the  Spaniards  in  Milan, 
whither  George  of  Frundsberg,  who  was  a  friend  of  Luther, 
led  to  him  16,000  lansquenets,  most  of  them  likewise  Lutherans. 
The  Venetians  having  closed  the  narrow  Veronese  passes, 
Frundsberg  marched  across  the  most  rugged  mountains, 
passing  the  Sarke  hills  by  a  road,  which  in  fact  was  only 
a  footpath,  along  the  edge  of  the  steepest  precipices.  The 
old  captain  walked  along  the  most  dangerous  spots  by  the 
lances  of  his  men,  as  along  a  raiHng.  He  joined  Bourbon  on 
the  31st  of  January,  1527.  The  imperial  army  in  Italy, 
Germans  as  well  as  Spaniards  and  Italians,  were  left  without 
any  pay,  the  consequence  of  which  was  that  they  rebelled. 
Bourbon  applied  to  the  Pope  for  money;   the  Holy  Father 

*  The  nuptial  solemnities  will  be  related  in  another  place. 


DEATH     OF     FRUNDSBERG  55 

refused  it.  Frundsberg,  whom  the  lansquenets  called  their 
father,  and  the  enemies  the  "  Devourer  of  the  People,"  waited 
in  vain  for  letters  or  messages  from  Germany,  and,  always 
showing  a  cheerful  face  and  trusting  in  God's  help,  promised 
the  lansquenets  that  he  would  not  leave  them  until  they  were 
paid.  The  mutiny  broke  out  at  last ;  it  went  on  from  the  13th 
of  March,  in  the  evening,  to  the  15th  at  noon.  On  the 
1 6th  Frundsberg  addressed  his  men  near  Bologna;  but  his 
eloquence  would  not  avail  this  time,  the  angry  children 
shouted,  *'  Money  !  money !  "  and  lowered  their  lances  against 
their  father.  The  old  man,  deprived  of  speech  by  his  towering 
rage,  raised  his  hands;  the  big  tears  stood  in  his  eyes;  he 
tried  to  open  his  lips,  but  sank  swooning  on  a  drum.  An 
attack  of  paralysis  had  struck  him.  On  this  the  lansquenets 
became  silent,  and  quietly  dispersed.  On  the  fourth  day  only 
Frundsberg  recovered  his  speech,  but  never  again  his  strength, 
and  he  was  obliged  to  stop  at  Ferrara.  He  recrossed  the  Alps 
in  the  following  year,  and  died  at  his  estate  of  Mindelheim,  in 
Swabia,  which  afterwards  became  the  property  of  the  Fuggers, 
and  at  last  of  the  crown  of  Bavaria.  It  is  the  same  lordship 
from  which,  in  the  war  of  the  Spanish  succession,  the  Duke 
of  Marlborough  took  his  title  as  Prince  of  the  Empire. 
Frundsberg  used  to  say,  "  Three  things  ought  to  deter  a 
nation  from  war :  the  misery  into  which  the  people  are 
plunged ;  the  wicked  life  of  the  soldiery ;  and  the  ingratitude 
of  the  princes,  with  whom  the  faithless  are  sure  to  rise  in 
favour,  and  the  well-deserving  servants  remain  unrewarded." 
On  the  death  of  Frundsberg  his  estates  were  found  to  be  mort- 
gaged to  merchants,  as  he  had  never  in  his  life  received  any 
gratuity  for  his  faithful  services.  He  died  on  the  20th  of  August, 
1528.  Bourbon,  whose  tent  the  lansquenets  had  invaded, 
whose  coat  had  been  torn  from  his  back,  and  who,  amid  the 
fury  and  the  threats  of  the  men,  had  only  saved  his  life  by 
flight,  and  by  hiding  himself  under  the  straw  in  Frundsberg's 
stables,  now  took  the  chief  command  of  the  whole  army,  the 
Germans  included.  The  soldiery,  instead  of  pressing  for  their 
arrears,  demanded  speedily  to  be  marched  to  Rome,  where 
they  said  there  would  be  no  lack  of  pay,  as  all  the  money 


56  CHARLES    V. 

of  Christendom  had  gathered  there  for  centuries.  Bourbon 
was  not  in  a  condition  to  oppose  their  request. 

On  the  5th  of  May,  1527,  at  sunset,  the  Constable  with 
his  army  of  25,000  men  appeared  before  the  walls  of  the 
Eternal  City.  Pointing  out  to  his  troops  the  shining  domes 
and  pinnacles  of  its  churches  and  palaces,  he  promised  them 
the  plunder  of  the  place.  Everything  was  at  once  put  in 
readiness  for  the  assault.  A  thick  fog  in  the  morning  con- 
cealed from  the  Romans  the  approach  of  the  hostile  army. 
The  ladders  were  planted  without  delay,  and  the  escalade 
began.  Bourbon  was  repulsed  several  times,  the  Swiss 
making  a  stout  defence  for  the  Pope,  who,  with  his  car- 
dinals, had  taken  refuge  in  the  castle  of  St.  Angelo.  At 
last  Bourbon,  being  conspicuous  to  friend  and  foe  by  a 
white  cloak  which  he  wore  over  his  suit  of  armour,  snatched 
a  ladder  from  the  hands  of  a  Spanish  soldier,  and  began 
scaling  it.  But  he  had  only  climbed  a  few  steps  when  a 
shot  from  an  arquebuse  struck  him  down.  The  Imperialists 
now  entered  Rome ;  the  Swiss  gradually  gave  way ;  and  before 
evening  set  in  the  capital  of  the  world  was  conquered. 

The  soldiery,  no  longer  restrained  by  the  control  of  a 
commander,  continued  to  sack  the  city  for  ten  days.  The 
hordes  of  his  Catholic  Majesty  committed  atrocities  equal  to 
any  which  have  been  recorded  of  the  Goths  and  Vandals. 
Sebastian  Schärtlin  of  Burtembach,  one  of  the  captains, 
writes  in  his  autobiography  :  "  On  the  6th  of  May,  1527,  we 
took  Rome  by  assault.  We  slew  6,000  men  in  it ;  sacked  the 
whole  town ;  took  away  whatever  we  could  find  in  the  churches 
or  above  ground  ;  burnt  down  the  greater  part  of  the  city ; 
and  there  were  all  sorts  of  strange  doings.  In  the  castle  of 
St.  Angelo  we  found  Pope  Clement  with  twelve  cardinals  in  a 
narrow  stable,  and  took  him  prisoner,  and  made  him  sign  the 
articles  which  the  clerk  read  out  to  him.  There  was  great 
sorrow  among  them  ;  they  wept  very  much,  but  we  all  of  us 
grew  rich."  Reisner,  in  his  quaint  "  Life  of  Frundsberg," 
states :  "  The  German  lansquenets  put  the  cardinals'  hats 
on  their  heads,  donned  the  long  scarlet  robes,  and  rode  on 
donkeys  about  the  city.      William  von  Sandizell  (a  Bavarian 


ASSAULT    OF     ROME  57 

captain  of  Frundsberg's)  often  used  to  make  his  appearance 
before  the  castle  of  St.  Angelo  dressed  up  as  the  Pope  of 
Rome,  with  the  triple  crown  ;  and  his  men,  in  the  cardinals' 
robes,  bowed  before  him.  Then  the  mock  pontiff,  with  a 
glass  of  wine,  officiated ;  and  the  mock  cardinals  drank  his 
health  after  him,  calling  out  that  they  were  now  going  to 
make  right  good  popes  and  cardinals,  who  would  be  obedient 
to  the  Emperor,  and  not  cause  rebellion,  war,  and  bloodshed 
as  the  others  had  done.  At  last  they  shouted  aloud,  '  Let  us 
make  Luther  Pope  of  Rome  ! '  whereupon  all  raised  their  hands, 
shouting,  *  Luther  a  Pope  !  Luther  a  Pope  .' '  " 

This  game  was  carried  on  before  the  castle  of  St.  Angelo 
in  derision  of  the  real  Pope,  who  was  shut  up  in  it,  first  when 
besieged  and  then  as  a  prisoner.  A  German  lansquenet, 
Grünewald,  especially  distinguished  himself  in  mortifying  and 
frightening  the  Pope.  He  publicly  called  up  to  the  castle, 
"  that  he  would  be  only  too  happy  to  tear  a  piece  from  the 
Pope's  body  and  take  it  to  Luther,  because  the  Pope  had 
until  now  so  vehemently  opposed  the  Word  of  God." 
Clement  VII.,  a  scion  of  the  celebrated  house  of  Medici, 
had  to  pay  400,000  scudi  as  his  ransom,  and  give  up  to  the 
imperial  troops  his  fortified  places  around  Rome  and  in 
Lombardy.  Until  the  stipulated  sura  was  paid  he  was  to  go 
as  prisoner  to  Naples,  under  the  guard  of  the  same  Colonel 
Alar9on  to  whom  Francis  I.  had  been  entrusted. 

The  Constable  of  Bourbon,  because  he  died  excommuni- 
cated, was  not  buried,  but  kept  in  a  box  in  the  castle  of 
Gaeta.  The  Bavarian  Baron  von  Lerchenfeld-Aham,  during 
his  journey  in  1728,  still  saw  the  body.  It  was  standing 
upright,  in  a  Spanish  dress,  with  a  hat  and  peruke,  holding 
a  cane  in  its  hand  and  wearing  a  sword  at  its  side. 

The  Emperor,  who  did  not  care  to  make  the  world  believe 
that  the  assault  of  Rome  had  happened  with  his  knowledge 
and  by  his  orders,  sent  letters  of  excuse  to  all  the  Christian 
princes.  Whilst  his  soldiery,  who,  it  is  true,  could  no  longer 
be  restrained  after  having  lost  their  commanders  Bourbon 
and  Frundsberg,  kept  the  Pope  prisoner,  first  in  the  castle 
of  St.  Angelo,  then  in  Naples,   Charles  had  public  prayers 


58  CHARLES    V. 

offered  for  ths  delivery  of  the  Holy  Father  in  all  the  churches 
of  his  empire.  The  Pope  made  his  escape  on  the  eve  of  the 
loth  of  December,  1527,  the  day  on  which  he  was  to  have 
been  liberated  and  sent  back  to  Rome.  Lest  he  should  a 
second  time  be  exposed  to  the  insults  of  the  soldiers  in  Rome, 
he  went,  very  likely  with  the  knowledge  of  his  gaolers,  to  the 
camp  of  the  Holy  League  at  Orvieto.  The  imperial  army  left 
Rome  only  after  a  stay  of  ten  months,  having,  in  retribution 
of  the  horrors  committed  by  them,  dwindled  by  disease  to 
25,000  men.  It  marched  to  Naples,  which  the  French  under 
Lautrec  had  invaded  with  great  success.  Charles  was  in  a 
very  critical  position. 

Diplomacy  now  came  to  the  rescue.  Charles,  who  was 
always  successful  on  that  field,  executed  a  master  stroke. 
He  brought  the  celebrated  Genoese  naval  hero,  Andrew 
Doria,  over  to  his  side.  Doria,  who  had  been  elected  Doge 
of  Genoa,  now  sailed  with  his  fleet  to  the  relief  of  Naples, 
and  forced  the  French  to  raise  the  siege  of  that  city.  With 
this,  fortune  again  turned  in  favour  of  the  Emperor. 

Whilst  this  was  going  on  in  Italy,  there  had  been  between 
Charles  and  France  a  new  declaration  of  war,  and,  moreover, 
that  remarkable  challenge  for  single  combat  concerning  which 
the  "  Papiers  d'Etat  du  Cardinal  de  Granvelle,"  lately  pub- 
lished from  the  public  library  of  Besan9on,  have  communicated 
the  documentary  evidence. 

The  declaration  of  war  was  made  in  the  ancient  mediaeval 
style  by  two  kings-at-arms  of  the  allied  monarchs  of  France 
and  England,  the  heralds  appearing  in  person  at  the  court 
of  Charles  V.  at  Burgos,  22nd  of  January,  1528.  On  the 
28th  of  March,  1528,  Nicolaus  Perrenot  de  Granvella  had  his 
farewell  audience  with  Francis  I.  in  Paris.  The  King  wished 
to  commit  to  his  care  the  challenge  to  Charles  bearing  the 
same  date.  Granvella  declined  to  take  it ;  it  was  therefore 
delivered  to  Charles  on  the  7th  of  June  of  the  same  year,  at 
Mon9on,  in  Arragon,  by  Guyenne,  Roi  d' Armes  de  France,  and 
was  to  this  effect ; 

"We  Francis,  by  the  grace  of  God  King  of  France,  lord  of  Gennes 
(Genoa),  &c.    To  you  Charles,  by  the  same  grace  elected  Emperor  of  the 


A    CHALLENGE    TO     SINGLE     COMBAT  59 

Romans,  King  of  Spain,  cause  to  be  known,  that  we  being  warned  that  in 
some  answers  that  you  have  made  to  our  ambassadors  and  heralds  sent 
you  for  the  sake  of  peace,  you  have  said  that  against  our  faith  and  promise 
we  have  released  ourselves  from  your  hands  and  power.  In  order  to 
defend  our  honour — the  which  in  this  case  is  accused  contrary  to  truth — 
we  have  wished  to  send  you  this  challenge,  wishing  that  each  should  have 
satisfaction,  and  also  our  own  honour — the  which  we  wish  to  defend 
and  will  defend,  if  God  pleases,  until  death — we  give  you  to  understand 
that  if  you  have  charged  us,  or  wish  to  charge  us,  not  only  in  our  said 
faith  and  speech,  but  that  we  have  ever  done  anything  that  a  gentleman 
loving  his  honour  ought  not  to  do,  we  say  that  you  have  lied  in  your 
throat,  and  as  many  times  as  you  do  say  it  you  will  lie,  being  determined 
to  defend  our  said  honour  until  the  end  of  our  life.  Henceforth  we  shall 
not  write  anything,  but  will  bear  arms  against  you,  protesting  that,  if  after 
this  declaration,  in  any  place  you  write  or  say  anything  against  our  honour 
the  shame  of  the  delay  of  the  combat  will  be  yours,  seeing  that  our 
meeting  must  be  the  end  of  our  correspondence. 

"  Done  in  our  town  and  city  of  Paris  the  28th  of  March,  1527. 

"  (Signed)  Francis. 

"  (And  above  is  put  a  seal  of  vermilion  wax.)  " 

The  challenge  was  provoked  by  the  following  statement, 
which  Charles  had  made  in  a  written  communication  to  the 
French  ambassador,  Jean  de  Calvymont,  dated  i8th  of  March, 
1528. 

*'  Substance  of  the  words  written  by  his  Majesty  to  the  President  and 
Ambassador  of  France,  who  pretended  not  to  remember  what  the  Emperor 
had  previously  said  to  him  at  Grenada. 

"  I  have  told  you  that  the  King  your  master  had  acted  cowardly  and 
wickedly  in  violating  the  word  that  he  had  given  me  at  the  treaty  of 
Madrid,  and  that  if  he  pretended  the  contrary,  I  would  sustain  it  against 
him  man  to  man. 

"  These  are  the  very  terms  of  which  I  have  made  use  concerning  the 
King  your  master  at  Madrid,  telling  him  that  I  would  hold  him  for  a 
coward  and  evil-doer  if  he  went  from  his  word  which  he  had  given  me ; 
and  in  so  qualifying  him,  I  hold  more  faithfully  to  my  promises  than  he 
to  his. 

"Given  at  Madrid,  March  i8th." 

Charles  sent  to  the  challenge  of  Francis  an  answer  to  the 
following  effect : 

"  I  Charles,  by  divine  mercy,  Emperor  of  the  Romans,  King  of  the 
Germans,  of  the  Spaniards,  &c.,  to  you,  Francis,  by  the  grace  of  God, 
King  of  France,  make  known,  &c. 

"And  to  this  effect  and  more  prompt  expediency,  I  name  to  you 
now  the  place  of  the  said  combat  upon  the  river  which  passes  between 
Fontarabye  and  Andaya  in  such  a  position  and  in  such  a  manner  as  will 
be  mutually  considered  most  sure  and  most  convenient ;  and  it  seems  to 
me  that  reasonably  you  cannot  refuse,  nor  say  you  were  not  informed, 
since  you  were  there  released  on  giving  your  children  as  hostages  and  by 


60  CHARLES     V. 

means  of  your  word  henceforth,  to  be  guarantee  of  your  return ;  and 
seeing  also  that  upon  the  same  river  were  trusted  your  own  person  and 
that  of  your  children,  you  can  well  trust  yourself  alone,  since  I  will  put 
myself  there,  and,  notwithstanding  the  situation,  will  take  care  that  neither 
one  nor  the  other  has  the  advantage.  And  to  the  effect  as  above,  and  to 
settle  upon  the  choice  of  arms — which  I  consider  is  for  me  and  not  for 
you — and  in  order  that  there  may  no  longer  be  any  delay,  we  will  send 
to  the  said  place  gentlemen  from  each  side  with  sufficient  power  to  advise 
and  conclude  all  arrangements  with  regard  to  arms  and  any  other  matter 
touching  this  combat. 

"  And  if  in  forty  days  after  receipt  of  this  you  do  not  respond  nor 
advise  me  of  your  intention,  it  will  be  plainly  seen  that  the  delay  of  combat 
will  be  yours,  and  that  you  can  be  accused  of  not  having  accomplished 
what  you  promised  at  Madrid. 

"And  as  for  your  protestation  that,  if  after  your  declaration  I  should 
say  or  write  words  in  other  places  that  may  be  against  your  honour, 
the  shame  of  the  delay  of  the  combat  will  be  mine,  your  said  protestation 
is  easily  excused ;  for  it  is  not  for  you  to  hinder  me  from  speaking  the 
truth,  much  as  it  may  grieve  you ;  and  I  am  quite  sure  that  I  cannot 
reasonably  take  the  blame  of  delaying  the  combat,  since  everybody  can 
recognise  the  desire  that  I  have  to  see  the  result  of  it. 

"  Given  at  Monson  in  my  kingdom  of  Arragon  the  24th  day  of  the 
said  month  of  June,  1528. 

"  Charles. 

"  (And  sealed  with  his  private  seal.)" 

Bourgogne,  the  king-at-arms  of  Charles,  delivered  his 
letter  to  Francis  on  the  loth  of  September,  1528.  But  the 
affair  did  not  go  any  further.  No  duel  was  fought ;  Cardinal 
Wolsey  having  in  the  meanwhile,  on  the  15th  of  June, 
brought  about  a  peace.  Yet  even  as  late  as  on  the  9th  of 
November  Charles  wrote  to  his  chamberlain,  William  de 
Montfort,  his  ambassador  in  the  Netherlands : 

"As  regarding  the  challenge  ....  do  not  forget  to  inquire  in  every 
place  if  I  am  still  bound  to  do  anything  further  to  satisfy  my  honour,  for  I 
would  not  fail  therein." 

Both  parties  now  longed  for  peace,  which  was  at  last 
concluded  in  1529,  at  Cambray,  by  two  ladies,  Louise  of 
Savoy,  the  mother  of  Francis;  and  Margaret,  aunt  of  Charles, 
and  Regent  of  the  Netherlands;  and  which,  therefore,  was 
called  the  "  The  Ladies'  Peace."  The  King  of  France  paid 
two  million  crowns  for  the  liberation  of  his  two  sons,  who 
were  still  kept  prisoners  in  Spain.  Eleanor,  Charles's  sister, 
whom  Francis  now  married,  brought  the  young  Princes  back 
to  him.  Francis  also  renounced  his  claims  to  Italy  ;  whereas 
Charles,  on  the  other  hand,  did  not  press  for  the  immediate 


HIS     CORONATION  6l 

cession  of  Burgundy,  reserving,  however,  his  claims  to  it. 
Charles  likewise  concluded  peace  at  Barcelona  with  the  now 
humbled  Pope,  Clement  VII.,  and  installed  another  Medici 
as  hereditary  Duke  of  Florence,  to  whom  he  afterwards  gave 
his  natural  daughter  Margaret  in  marriage  ;  the  duchy  of 
Milan  he  restored  to  Francesco  Sforza.  Genoa  remained  a 
Republic  under  the  Doge  Andrew  Doria. 

Charles  then  left  Spain,  and  betook  himself  to  Italy,  where 
he  had  never  been  before.  He  went  there  to  be  crowned  by 
the  Pope  as  Roman  Emperor.  On  the  12th  of  August,  1529, 
he  landed  at  Genoa,  surrounded  by  a  splendid  retinue  of 
Spanish  grandees.  From  Genoa  he  went  to  Bologna.  Here 
he  met  the  Pope,  kissed,  according  to  ancient  usage,  on 
his  knees  the  foot  of  the  Holy  Father,  and  was  by  him 
crowned  King  of  Lombardy  and  Roman  Emperor.  The 
coronation  took  place  on  the  24th  of  February,  1530,  the 
anniversary  of  the  victory  of  Pavia,  and  at  the  same  time  his 
thirtieth  birthday.  It  was  the  last  coronation  of  an  Emperor 
performed  hy  a  Pope  until  the  time  of  Napoleon. 

Great  splendour  and  profusion  were  displayed  on  that 
occasion.  Gold  and  silver  coins  were  flung  to  the  people  on 
the  first  day  by  a  herald,  during  the  procession  from  the 
church  after  the  coronation  ;  and,  on  the  second  day,  for  two 
whole  hours  from  the  balcony  and  the  corner  windows  of  the 
palace.  At  the  coronation  banquet  all  the  gold  and  silver 
plate  and  other  costly  vessels  of  the  table  were,  after  every 
course,  likewise  thrown  out  of  the  window  to  the  people. 
The  Spanish  Charles  had  not  one  prince  of  the  German 
Empire  with  him.  This  was  a  new  fashion ;  no  Germano- 
Roman  Emperor  had  been  crowned  in  this  way  before.  But, 
on  the  other  hand,  as  a  faithful  son  of  the  Church,  he  stayed 
with  the  Pope  for  five  months  under  the  same  roof  at 
Bologna. 

The  Emperor  had  now  his  hands  unfettered  against  the 
Turks,  and  also  against  the  German  Protestants,  of  whom  he 
had  very  cleverly  made  use  as  bugbears  to  frighten  the  Pope. 
He  therefore  now  resolved  upon  going  to  Germany,  where  he 
had  summoned  the  princes  of  the  Empire  to  Augsburg.     It 


62  CHARLES    V. 

was  the  celebrated  Diet  at  which  the  confession  of  the  Pro- 
testants was  brought  forth,  the  Diet  of  the  year  1530. 

Even  before  having  crossed  the  Alps,  Charles  received  the 
joyful  news  of  the  departure  of  the  Grand  Turk,  who  had 
made  his  appearance  before  Vienna  whilst  the  Emperor  was 
engaged  in  settling  the  affairs  of  Italy.  Never  before  had  the 
Turks  advanced  so  far  westward.  They  had  reached  the 
height  of  their  power  under  Soleyman ;  having  become  a 
naval  power,  they  had  conquered  Rhodes,  from  whence  the 
Knights  of  St.  John  were  then  obliged  to  remove  to  the 
Island  of  Malta,  of  which  Charles  V.  made  them  a  grant 
in  1530. 

The  Turks  had  invaded  Hungary  since  1521,  after  having 
conquered  Belgrade,  the  key  of  that  kingdom.  In  1526,  as 
mentioned  before,  Louis  II.,  the  last  Jagellon  of  Hungary 
and  Bohemia,  was  killed  in  the  battle  of  Mohacz,  after 
which  the  Hungarians  elected  John  Zapolya,  Count  of  Zips 
(John  Zapol  Scaepius).  An  opposition  party  elected  the 
brother  of  Charles  V.,  Ferdinand,  Archduke  of  Austria, 
who,  however,  was  not  able  to  maintain  himself  in  posses- 
sion of  what  he  considered  his  hereditary  kingdom.  Charles 
allied  himself  with  the  Shah  of  Persia,  Ishmael  Sophi,  to  have 
the  Turks  attacked  in  the  East ;  his  ambassador  to  the  Shah 
was  the  Knight  of  St.  John  De  Balbi.  His  instructions, 
dated  from  Toledo,  i8th  of  February,  1529,  have  lately  been 
communicated  by  Lanz. 

Soleyman  overran  the  whole  of  Hungary,  and  laid  siege  to 
Vienna  for  twenty-one  days  in  autumn,  1529.  His  army  was 
estimated  at  250,000  men,  the  baggage  being  carried  by  22,000 
camels,  which  animals  had  never  been  seen  before  in  those 
parts.  The  tents  of  the  Moslems  spread  along  the  whole 
valley  of  the  Danube,  Soleyman's  own  gorgeous  pavilion 
being  pitched  near  Sömmering,  where,  dressed  in  silk,  gold, 
and  purple,  he  might  be  seen  issuing  his  commands.  Fer- 
dinand, with  his  court,  fled  to  Linz.  Vienna  was  indifferently 
fortified,  having  only  a  single  wall  and  a  dry  ditch,  and  it  was 
garrisoned  by  not  more  than  five  regiments;  but  from  the 
times  of  the  old  Emperor  Maximilian,  who  had  had  a  par- 


THE    CONQUEST    OF     HUNGARY  63 

ticular  fancy  for  heavy  ordnance,  there  were  so  many  cannons 
in  the  town  that  all  the  wall  and  even  the  roofs  of  the  houses 
could  be  armed  with  them.  There  were,  moreover,  Tyrolese 
miners  in  the  city,  who  foiled  the  mines  of  the  Turks  by 
counter-mines  ;  and  thus  all  their  attacks  were  successfully 
repelled. 

The  departure  of  the  Grand  Turk  took  place,  after  an 
unsuccessful  general  assault,  on  the  14th  of  October,  1529.^ 
Soleyman  left  in  order  to  escape  from  the  cold  of  winter  and 
to  return  at  his  own  convenience.  He  took  with  him  an 
immense  number  of  captives ;  the  kidnapped  Christian 
children  were  to  recruit  the  ranks  of  his  Janissaries. 

Hungary  had  to  be  left  to  the  "  highly  favoured  Turkish 
Emperor  Soleyman,"  as  the  celebrated  Sigismund  von  Her- 
berstein calls  him,  who  afterwards  was  sent  to  him  as  am- 
bassador. With  great  difficulty  Hans  Katzianer,''  Herber- 
stein's  nephew,  preserved  the  very  small  part  which  remained 
to  Ferdinand. 

The  house  of  Habsburg  was  more  successful  in  the  other 
kingdom  (Bohemia)  which  Ferdinand  had  acquired  by  his  mar- 
riage with  Ann  Jagellon.  At  first,  in  addressing  the  Bohemian 
Parliament,  he  spoke  of  the  inherited  claims  of  his  wife  to  the 
crown  ;  but  this  allusion  very  nearly  cost  him  all  his  expecta- 
tions, and  he  was  forced  to  acknowledge  by  a  special  docu- 
ment that  he  owed  the  kingdom  to  election.  He  now  obtained 
the  crown  from  the  representatives  of  the  nation  by  means 
of  the  old-established  electioneering  expedient  of  bribing  the 
voters.  Yet  he  confined  himself  to  promises,  of  which  he  was 
most  lavish,  especially  towards  the  great  nobles.  But  he 
took  very  good  care  to  leave  his  promises  unfulfilled.  To 
give  one  example :  the  old  Count  Palatine  (Oberstbnrggraf)  of 
Bohemia,  Zdenko  Leo  of  Rozmital,  brother  of  the  queen  of 
King  George  Podiebrad,  had  been  promised  50,000  ducats, 
of  which,  after  long  waiting,  he  received  a  very  small  sum  on 

1  Soleyman  suffered  a  loss  of  about  100,000  men. 

9  Katzianer  received  the  wolf,  which  had  formerly  belonged  to  the 
coat  of  arms  of  Zapolya,  for  his  own.  The  family  of  Katzianer  was  raised 
to  the  dignity  of  counts  in  1665. 


64  CHARLES    V. 

account.  When,  however,  in  1541,  the  vevy  welcome  fire  in  the 
archives  of  the  parliament  of  Prague  had  accidentally  destroyed 
all  the  old  documents,  Ferdinand  declared,  in  his  testament  of 
the  year  1543,  "that  he  had  given  those  pledges  only  in 
ignorance  of  the  real  facts  of  the  case,  and  that  he  had  since 
ascertained  from  the  Golden  Bull  of  the  Emperor  Charles 
IV.,  his  predecessor  in  the  kingdom,  that  by  all  means  in  the 
realm  of  Bohemia,  after  the  extinction  of  the  royal  male  line, 
the  females  were  entitled  to  the  succession  " ;  moreover,  he 
had  by  negotiation  prevailed  upon  the  parHament  to  return  to 
him  the  acknowledgment  which  he  had  signed.  The  fate  of 
Bohemia  was  accomplished  only  after  the  battle  of  Mühlberg, 
in  1547,  and  after  the  battle  of  the  White  Mountain,  in  1621, 
in  the  "  Altstätter  Ring  "  at  Prague,  of  which  more  hereafter 
in  its  proper  place. 

Charles,  from  the  coronation  at  Bologna,  went,  in  the 
spring  of  the  year  1530,  across  the  Alps,  to  attend  at  the  Diet 
which  he  had  summoned  to  Augsburg.  During  the  nine 
years  of  his  absence  from  Germany  important  changes  had 
taken  place,  which  might  not  a  little  aid  his  ambitious  plans 
for  the  establishment  of  absolute  rule,  which  he  entertained 
with  regard  to  Germany  as  well  as  to  Spain. 

Of  the  four  great  estates  of  the  German  Empire — the 
electors  and  princes,  who  constituted  the  high  aristocracy ;  the 
free  cities,  which  still  appeared  at  the  Diet,  but  made  no  great 
figure  there ;  and,  lastly,  the  knights  (smaller  nobility  and 
gentry)  of  the  empire,  and  the  peasantry  (yeomen),  who  were 
not  represented  at  the  Diet  at  all — the  two  latter  had  been 
crushed  by  the  storms  which  the  religious  movement  had 
conjured  up.  The  German  Reformers,  being  very  well- 
meaning  but  exceedingly  unpractical  men,  with  but  a  very 
slight  knowledge  of  the  world,  expected  to  keep  their  work 
clear  of  every  admixture  of  political  elements.  But  the 
worldly  and  political  element  forced  its  alliance  upon  the 
cause,  owing  to  that  close  connection  between  moral  and 
material  interests  which  had  linked  together  Church  and 
State  during  the  whole  of  the  middle  ages,  and  by  which  the 
two  will  be  linked  together  as  long  as  man  is  not  a  spiritual- 


THE     SICKINGEN     FEUD  65 

ised  nonentity,  without  human  wants  and  human  desires. 
The  two  estates  which  wished  to  derive  poHtical  results  from 
the  religious  movement  were  the  lower  nobility  (gentry)  of 
the  empire  and  the  peasantry.     Their  field  of  action  was  the 

Sickingen  Feud  and  the  Peasants'  War. 

4. — The  Sickingen  Feud  and  the  Peasants^  War. 

The  numerous  nobility  (gentry),  vassals  in  capite  of  the 
Empire  (reichsunmittclbar),  on  the  banks  of  the  Rhine,  in 
Swabia  and  Franconia,  wished  to  avail  themselves  of  the 
Reformation  to  appropriate  large  estates  belonging  to  the 
Church,  in  order  thereby  to  be  able  to  form  a  counterpoise 
against  the  princes,  and  to  break  the  thraldom  which  they 
had  sometimes  to  endure  from  them.  A  host  of  pamphlets 
were  published,  in  which  it  was  set  forth  that  the  authority  of 
the  imperial  prerogative  should  be  restored,  the  property  of 
the  Church  turned  to  account  for  improving  the  position 
of  the  common  people,  of  the  burghers,  and  of  the  lower 
nobility,  and  the  political  power  of  the  princes  and  prelates 
be  crushed  for  ever.  Francis  von  Sickingen  had  for  a  long 
time  been  the  secret  leader  of  the  lower  nobility.  He  was 
born  in  1488,  at  his  family  seat  of  Sickingen,  in  the  Pala- 
tinate. He  was  of  small  stature  but  of  large  mind,  and  of  an 
iron  will,  which  he  brought  to  bear  upon  the  most  lofty 
aspirations.  Being  the  possessor  of  a  great  many  castles  on 
the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine,  in  the  retired  forests  of  Kreuz- 
nach  and  Kaiserslautern,  to  the  west  of  Mayence  and  Worms, 
he  was  constantly  at  feud  with  the  neighbouring  princes, 
secular  and  spiritual,  with  the  Bishops  of  Mayence  and 
Worms,  and  with  the  Dukes  of  Lorraine.  When  Charles  V. 
began  the  contest  with  France  for  the  possession  of  Italy, 
he  entrusted  Sickingen,  as  his  privy  councillor  and  general, 
with  the  chief  command  on  the  Rhine.  Sickingen  there 
fought  against  Bayard.  He  was  the  idol  of  the  soldiers ; 
when  he  rode  through  the  camp,  everyone  had  a  smile  for 
him.  The  lansquenets  pressed  round  his  horse,  patted  it,  and 
would  also  sometimes  shake  the  hand  of  the  knight,  with 
VOL.   1  5 


66  CHARLES     V. 

whom  they  used  to  make  so  free  that  one  day  they  snatched 
from  his  helmet  the  crape  which  he  wore  as  mourning  for  his 
deceased  wife,  and  fixed  it  to  the  pennons  of  their  troops. 
But  when,  in  the  hour  of  the  fray,  he  shouted  with  his  voice 
of  thunder  his  '*  At  them  !  "  he  well  knew  he  might  reckon 
upon  his  men. 

It  was  during  the  French  war  on  the  Rhine  that  Sickingen, 
although  being  the  Emperor's  general,  began  to  negotiate  with 
Francis  I.  His  friend,  the  celebrated  Ulrich  von  Hütten,  had 
given  him  the  far  wiser  and  more  patriotic  advice  to  league 
himself  with  the  German  towns  and  the  peasantry.  Pamph- 
lets written  by  Hütten,  and  printed  at  his  castle  of  Ebern- 
burg,  near  Kreuznach,  or  at  that  of  Steckelberg,  belonging 
to  Sickingen,  were  already  circulated  in  the  villages ;  and 
they  told  among  the  people.  Three  years  after  copies  of  them 
were  found  among  the  papers  of  the  ringleaders  of  the  great 
peasants'  riots.  But  Sickingen  either  would  not  wait  for 
the  assistance  of  the  common  people,  or,  in  his  aristocratic 
pride,  disdained  covering  with  his  baronial  shield  the  cause 
of  "pepper  bags  and  smock-frocks."  He  therefore  allied 
himself  with  the  foreigner,  with  whose  help  he  hoped  to  carry 
cut  his  far-aiming  plans. 

He  summoned  in  1522  all  the  imperial  [reichsunmittelbar) 
nobility  of  the  banks  of  the  Rhine,  Swabia,  and  Franconia 
to  a  great  meeting  at  Landau.  He  was  appointed  captain  of 
the  League ;  and  his  enemies  already  began  to  call  him  the 
Anti-Emperor,  as  they  did  Luther  the  Anti-Pope.  Having 
assembled  the  considerable  force  of  12,000  mercenaries,  he 
invaded  with  them  in  the  middle  of  summer  the  spiritual 
Electorate  of  Treves.  After  having  conquered  the  Elector, 
he  intended  to  turn  his  arms  against  the  other  members  of 
the  high  princely  aristocracy.  The  princes  were  seized  with 
terror.  Men  who  were  intimately  acquainted  with  the  general 
temper  of  the  times  saw  very  clearly  the  magnitude  of  the 
danger.  France,  however,  left  Sickingen  in  the  lurch  ;  upon 
which  the  nobility,  just  as  happened  afterwards  to  the 
peasantry,  were  reduced  one  by  one  by  the  neighbouring 
princes,  the  Elector  Palatine  and  the  Landgrave  Philip  of 
Hesse,  who  came  to  the  rescue  of  Treves.    The  three  Princes 


VON   sickingen's  defeat  67 

of  the  Palatinate,  of  Hesse,  and  of  Treves,  invested  Sickingen 
in  1523  in  his  stronghold  Landstuhl,  near  Kaiserslautern. 
The  artillery  of  the  princes  knocked  down  the  walls  of  the 
knight's  castle,  and  a  splinter  from  a  rafter  struck  by  a  cannon 
ball  inflicted  a  fatal  wound  on  Sickingen.  The  three  princes 
entered  by  the  breach  into  the  castle,  and  stood  before  the 
dying  man.  When  the  Elector  of  Treves  began  to  chide  him, 
Sickingen  only  replied,  "  I  have  now  to  do  with  a  greater 
Master  than  you  are."  Immediately  after  he  expired.  Ulrich 
von  Hütten  fled  to  Switzerland,  where  he  died  on  the  soil  of 
freedom  as  the  guest  of  the  burghers  of  Zurich,  on  the  island 
of  Ufnau,  in  their  lake,  in  1525. 

Thus  were  the  German  imperial  nobility  conquered,  owing 
to  their  isolating  themselves  in  their  aristocratic  pride ;  and 
never  since  Sickingen's  defeat  have  they  been  able  to  recover 
their  old  importance  and  independent  position.  They  had 
now  to  bow  before  the  princes,  at  whose  courts,  at  a  later 
period,  their  reduced  ambition  was  content  to  disport  itself 
in  diminished  proportions.  In  a  similar  manner  the  German 
peasantry  wrought  its  own  ruin  by  plebeian  stifFneckedness. 
Their  rising  was  as  isolated  as  that  of  the  nobility ;  and  thus 
they  were  conquered,  singly,  in  divided  hosts.  It  was  300 
years  ago  just  as  we  have  seen  it  in  our  own  times.^  The 
energetic  exertions  of  the  armed  opposition,  as  they  were 
made  singly,  without  distinct  consciousness  of  their  ultimate 
object,  although  not  without  great  valour,  could  not  but  end 
in  smoke. 

In  the  most  ancient  patriarchal  era,  when  the  whole  nation 
in  times  of  war  was  one  vast  host,  the  German  peasants  had 
been  independent  freemen.  Their  position  grew  worse  and 
worse  during  the  feudal  ages,  when,  partly  from  want  of 
protection,  and  partly  by  force,  they  were  driven  into  a  state 
of  vassalage  and  even  serfdom.  In  this  position,  however, 
the  services  which  they  had  to  render  to  the  lords  of  the 
noble  houses  were  regulated  by  fair  laws  and  contracts,  and 
the  protection  received  in  exchange  was  an  important 
equivalent  for  them.     As  early  as  the  fourteenth  century,  in 

1  Written  after  the  1848  rebellion. 

5—2 


68  CHARLES     V. 

the  days  of  Louis  of  Bavaria,  and  in  those  of  the  Emperor 
Charles  IV.,  the  peasantry  had  their  riots  of  "poor  Claus" 
(Nicolas)  and  of  Hans  Behem  the  drummer.  In  the  Nether- 
lands, especially  in  the  province  of  Holland,  the  rebellious 
peasants  were  called  "  the  Käsebrodter,"  from  the  bread  and 
cheese  on  their  banners.  Yet  their  position  became  quite 
intolerable  only  as  late  as  the  reign  of  the  Emperor 
Frederic  III.,  when  they  were  reduced  to  abject  servitude 
and  dependence.  The  German  lords  began  to  imitate  the 
luxury  which  had  been  generated  in  the  Burgundian  court ; 
and  since  the  proud  Spanish  Charles  had  displayed  his  pomp 
and  magnificence  in  their  Diets,  they  did  not  wish  to  cut  a 
less  figure  than  the  stately  Netherlandish,  Spanish,  and 
Italian  nobles  in  the  suite  of  the  Emperor.  The  increased 
expense  they  charged  upon  the  peasants,  by  adding  to  their 
feudal  burdens.  This  state  of  things  was  further  aggravated 
by  the  extortions  of  the  newly  established  lansquenets,  whom 
the  princes  now  kept  as  standing  troops,  and  who  lived 
principally  on  the  peasantry.  But  as  this  soldiery  was 
generally  raised  from  the  country  population,  the  peasants 
were  thereby  again  practised  in  the  use  of  arms,  and  able  to 
wield  the  sword  and  battle-axe  for  the  recovery  of  those 
ancient  rights  which  their  oppressors  had  wrested  from  them. 
At  the  Diet  of  15 17  already,  the  Committee  of  the  States  had 
given  it  as  their  opinion  that  "  the  ferocity  which  had  for 
some  time  been  traceable  in  the  peasantry,  and  their  readi- 
ness for  rebellion,  were  merely  owing  to  the  fact  that  the 
lansquenets,  who  had  served  in  foreign  wars,  were  dismissed 
to  their  homes  again." 

Another  source  of  evil  for  the  peasantry  was  the  introduc- 
tion of  the  Roman  law,  which  gave  rise  to  a  most  harassing 
system  of  tedious  lawsuits,  as  the  delays  of  justice  became 
the  interest  of  the  learned  lawyers,  who  thus  were  enabled  to 
enrich  themselves  at  the  cost  of  their  unfortunate  clients. 
The  nobles  in  some  instances  also  treated  the  peasants  with 
the  most  overbearing  insolence.  Thus  the  peasants  of  the 
Wetterau,  in  the  Electorate  of  Treves,  and  in  Lorraine,  were 
bound  to  perform  the  strange  service  of  flogging,  during  the 


THE     peasants'     WAR  69 

summer  nights,  the  water  in  the  moats  of  the  seignorial 
castles,  in  order  that  the  frogs  might  not  annoy  the  lords  by 
their  croaking.  The  towns  and  cities  did  not  care  to  help 
the  peasants.  They  likewise  looked  down  upon  them  with 
disdain ;  and  on  their  own  territories,  which  sometimes  were 
very  considerable,  they,  instead  of  trying  to  raise  the  con- 
dition of  the  country  people,  made  it  their  endeavour  to 
keep  them  under  as  much  as  possible.  Owing  to  this  con- 
temptuous treatment  of  the  peasantry,  the  towns  and  cities 
afterwards  in  their  turn  came  to  ruin.  They  too  fell  singly 
before  the  power  of  the  princes ;  and,  although  they  were  the 
last  to  fall,  yet  fall  they  did. 

The  peasants  felt  the  shoe  pinch  them,  and  for  that  reason 
they  adopted  it  as  their  emblem  on  their  banners.  The 
"  Bundschuh  "  ^  is  for  the  first  time  mentioned  as  having  been 
raised  in  1439,  at  Strassburg,  in  Alsace.  Upwards  of  eighty 
years  after,  in  1522,  it  turned  up  again  in  Southern  Germany, 
where  the  sight  of  the  neighbouring  free  and,  owing  to  their 
freedom,  wealthy  Swiss,  excited  the  anger  of  the  German 
peasants,  when  they  compared  this  prosperity  with  their  own 
miserable  condition.  In  the  Hegau,  a  district  of  Swabia, 
belonging  to  the  Duchy  of  Würtemberg,  the  peasants  rose, 
bearing  a  golden  shoe  on  their  banner,  with  the  motto : 

"  He  who  wishes  to  be  free,  may  follow  this  sunshine." 

The  peasants  wished  the  Christian  freedom  which  Luther 
preached  to  be  understood  as  political  freedom.  It  appeared 
to  them  very  unchristian  that  their  lords  should  thus  cruelly 
oppress  them.  The  peasants  of  the  Hegau  were  overcome ; 
but  after  the  autumn  of  1524  the  agitation  spread  through  the 
whole  of  Upper  Swabia;  and  when  the  peasants  in  the  county 
of  Stühlingen  were  commanded  by  their  overbearing  countess 
to  gather  snails  for  her,  that  her  servants  might  wind  yarn  on 
the  shells,  they  refused,  and  rose  under  a  black,  red,  and  white 
standard.  During  the  winter  of  that  year,  King  Ferdinand, 
the  Emperor's  brother,  who  in  his  absence  was  regent  of  the 

1  Either  the  "  Shoe  of  the  League,"  or  the  peasants'  laced  shoe.     Both 
interpretations  have  been  given  ;   the  latter  is  the  more  likely. — Translator 


70  CHARLES    V. 

Empire,  appointed  as  general  of  the  Swabian  league  against 
the  peasants,  Truchsess^  George  of  Waldburg,  or,  as  the 
peasants  called  him,  Bauernjörg  (peasants'  Georgy).  He  was 
a  scion  of  that  Swabian  house  whose  ancestor  accompanied 
the  last  Hohenstaufen  to  the  scaffold,  and  who  there  received 
from  the  hands  of  the  unfortunate  Conradin  his  gauntlet  and 
his  signet,  to  take  it  to  Peter  of  Arragon ;  in  memory  of 
which  event,  the  Waldburgs  to  this  day  quarter  the  three 
Hohenstaufen  lions  with  their  own  arms.  Truchsess  was 
ordered  to  arrest  the  rebel  peasants,  and  to  question  them  on 
the  rack  as  to  who  were  their  leaders  ;  after  which  all  should 
be  slain  who  could  be  got  hold  of,  their  lands  devastated,  their 
houses  burnt,  and  their  wives  and  children  expelled  without 
any  forbearance  or  mercy. 

In  1525  the  rebellion  broke  out  in  every  direction.  The 
first  were  the  peasants  of  the  Abbot  of  Kempten ;  they  were 
followed  by  those  of  the  Bishop  of  Augsburg.  The  peasants 
of  Truchsess  himself  joined  the  insurrection,  as  did  also  those 
of  the  imperial  city  of  Ulm  ;  the  most  numerous  host  of  them, 
however,  was  formed  by  the  peasants  of  the  neighbourhood  of 
the  Lake  of  Constance.  The  latter  hemmed  in  Truchsess 
near  the  monastery  of  Weingarten,  and  he  had  to  make  con- 
cessions on  the  basis  of  the  so-called  "twelve  articles"  of  the 
peasants.  This  summary  of  their  demands  was  rapidly  cir- 
culated by  them  throughout  Germany.  The  peasants  would 
agree  to  submit  their  grievances  to  the  arbitration  of  a  com- 
mittee of  umpires,  which  they  in  their  simplicity  wished  to  be 
composed  of  King  Ferdinand,  the  Elector  of  Saxony,  Luther, 
Melanchthon,  and  some  pastors.  It  was  just  as  in  1848,  when 
also  the  entire  salvation  of  Germany  was  expected  to  proceed 
from  Frankfort  alone,  from  those  learned  professors  who  made 
such  fine  speeches  in  St.  Paul's  church. 

The  twelve  articles  demanded  that  the  peasants  should  be 
at  liberty  to  choose  their  ministers  themselves,  who  were  to 
preach  the  pure  word  of  God ;  that  they  should  not  pay  more 
than  the  tithe,  out  of  wliich  the  parish  minister  was  to  be 
paid,  and,  with  the  remainder,  the  parish  expenses  and  those 

1  This  title,  grown  into  a  name,  corresponds  to  the  Scotch  of  "Stewart." 


THE    PEASANTS      WAR  7 1 

for  the  support  of  the  poor,  were  to  be  defrayed ;  bondage 
should  be  abolished;  the  socage  burdens  and  the  rate  of 
interest  be  reduced.  Moreover,  the  articles  stipulated  that 
the  chase,  fishery,  birdcatching,  and  forests  and  woods  should 
be  free,  and  the  property  of  everyone  ;  and  justice  be  adminis- 
tered by  judicious  men  of  the  nobility  and  from  the  towns, 
not  by  the  doctors  of  law,  who  only  perverted  the  law  and 
made  it  expensive. 

The  princes  were  far  from  accepting  these  articles,  and 
Luther  also  opposed  them.  It  was  an  abomination  to  him 
that  the  religious  movement  should  be  turned  into  a  political 
one.  His  own  inborn  rustic  humility  could  not  brook  the 
idea  of  allowing  the  great  lords  to  be  harassed  by  the  common 
mass.  To  him  doctrine  and  discipline  appeared  the  only 
thing  needful  in  the  community ;  he  was  convinced  that  every- 
thing would  be  subverted  unless  the  secular  power  were  left 
at  the  helm  of  the  State.  He  knew  very  well  that  the  root  of 
the  evil  lay  with  the  great  lords,  and  he  wrote,  *'  We  have  no 
one  to  thank  for  this  mischief  and  rebelHon  but  you  princes 
and  lords,  who  do  nothing  but  grind  the  faces  of  the  poor,  to 
carry  on  your  pomp  and  vanity,  until  the  common  man  cannot, 
and  will  not,  any  longer  bear  it."  But  he  stood  firm  to  the 
dogma  of  passive  obedience.  To  this  we  must  add  that  he 
was  afraid,  and  justly  so,  lest  a  mob  rule  should  be  even  worse 
than  the  tyranny  of  the  princes.  After  the  peasant  riots  were 
put  down,  he  said,  *'  I  certainly  apprehended  that  if  the  peasants 
got  the  mastery,  the  devil  would  be  abbot ;  but  that  if  the 
princes  got  it,  his  mother  would  be  abbess."  He  had  to  bear 
the  reproach  that  the  rebellion  had  been  his  work.  There  was 
one  thing  which  weighed  with  him  more  than  any  other,  and 
that  was,  not  to  allow  the  pure  gospel  to  be  compromised  by 
the  excesses  of  the  peasantry.  Their  conduct,  indeed,  justified 
his  fears :  their  demands  were  just  and  fair  enough,  but  their 
untutored  bands  were  soon  carried  away  by  their  own  wild 
passions;  the  complainants  became  the  self-constituted  judges 
of  their  own  cause,  and — a  melancholy  fact,  which  occurs  over 
and  over  again — they  now  practised  the  same  iniquities  under 
which  they  themselves  had  groaned.    It  did  not  strike  Luther 


72  CHARLES    V. 

that  the  best  way  for  him  would  have  been  to  go  in  person  to 
the  peasants,  to  take  the  lead  of  the  movement  out  of  their 
hands,  and  to  act  as  mediator.  The  peasants  set  fire  to  the 
seignorial  manors  and  to  the  monasteries.  In  those  times 
most  of  the  feudal  donjons  were  destroyed ;  among  others  the 
magnificent  castle  of  Hohenstaufen,  the  ancient  hereditary 
seat  of  the  Swabian  Emperors.  The  bands  of  the  peasants 
rapidly  increased;  in  Franconia  one  host  gathered  under  a 
black  banner  in  the  Odenwald ;  and  another,  from  the  valley 
of  the  Neckar,  assembled  under  gay  colours.  A  war  of  exter- 
mination was  carried  on  against  the  nobles,  with  the  cry, 
"TÄß  idlers  have  no  right  to  live!''  At  Weinsberg,  celebrated 
for  its  true-hearted  women,^  Count  Louis  of  Helfenstein,  the 
husband  of  a  natural  daughter  of  the  Emperor  Maximilian, 
had,  with  seventy  other  nobles,  to  run  the  gauntlet  through 
their  lances,  whilst  a  piper  was  playing  "  to  the  dance."  His 
wife,  having  her  little  son  Maximilian  with  her,  entreated  the 
murderers  to  spare  the  life  of  her  husband ;  but  she  was  not 
listened  to.  The  peasants  wounded  her  boy,  an  infant  of  two 
years,  in  her  arms ;  and,  after  having  despoiled  her  of  all  her 
jewels  and  trinkets,  sent  her,  together  with  another  lady,  on  a 
dung-cart  to  Heilbronn.  The  peasants  told  the  Council  of 
Nuremberg  in  plain  words  "that  they  did  not  intend  to  rest 
as  long  as  there  was  a  house  in  the  country  better  than 
a  peasant's  cabin." 

Luther,  being  apprised  of  it,  wrote  his  book  against  the 
"  rapacious  and  murderous  bands  of  the  peasants,"  in  which 
he  called  upon  everybody  "to  smash,  to  strangle,  and  to  stab 
the  peasants  in  public  and  in  private,  just  as  you  kill  a  mad 

1  Weinsberg  castle  had  to  surrender,  after  a  siege,  to  the  Hohenstaufen 
Emperor,  Conrad  III.  The  conqueror  having  given  permission  to  the 
women,  and  especially  to  the  noble  ladies,  to  take  away  with  them  as  much 
as  they  were  able  to  carry,  they  were  seen  issuing  from  the  gates  with  their 
husbands  on  their  backs,  declaring  them  to  be  their  most  precious  posses- 
sions. The  Emperor,  however,  allowed  them  to  take  all  their  clothes  and 
jewels  likewise.  It  was  at  this  siege  (1140)  that  "Guelph"  (Welf)  and 
"  Ghibelin  "  were  first  heard  as  war-cries.  The  ruins  of  the  castle,  called 
from  that  incident  Wcibcrtnu  (woman's  truth),  are  still  standing.  Gold 
rings,  with  a  peculiar  sort  of  pebble  which  is  found  on  its  hillside,  used, 
some  sixty  years  ago,  to  be  given  as  love-tokens. — Translator. 


THE     PEASANTS      WAR  73 

dog."  "The  mob  needs  to  be  ruled  by  force ;  the  ass  must  be 
cudgelled.  If  there  are  any  innocent  among  them,  God  will 
preserve  and  save  them,  just  as  he  did  Lot  and  Jeremiah.  If 
He  do  not,  they  certainly  are  not  innocent,  but  have  at  least 
connived  at  the  crimes  of  the  others  by  their  silence." 

The  whole  passionate,  choleric  temperament  of  Luther 
vented  itself  in  these  words,  which  remind  one  of  the  speech 
of  Arnold,  abbot  of  Citeaux,  when,  in  the  war  of  the  Albi- 
genses,  he  with  the  Count  of  Montfort  took  Bezieres  by 
assault.  "  Slay  them  all,"  Arnold  said ;  "  the  Lord  knows 
his  own  !"  Luther  by  that  pamphlet  severed  himself  entirely 
from  the  peasants,  and  left  them  to  their  fate.  Two  circum- 
stances had,  it  is  true,  much  to  do  with  his  resolution.  Carl- 
stadt,  "  the  heavenly  prophet,"  had  taken  part  with  them, 
and  the  Swiss,  who  were  particularly  odious  to  Luther,  on 
account  of  their  anti-sacramentarian  principles,  stood  in  con- 
nection with  them.  Caspar  Schwenkfeld,  the  notorious  Sile- 
sian  divine,  at  that  time  said  something  for  which  Luther 
never  forgave  him,  and  for  which  the  Wittenberg  reformers 
set  him  down  as  a  visionary:  "Luther  has  led  the  people 
from  Egypt  (from  Popery)  through  the  Red  Sea  (through 
the  bloody  Peasants'  War) ;  but  he  has  left  them  in  the  lurch 
in  the  wilderness." 

The  peasants  were  headed  by  able  men  :  by  Götz  (God- 
frey) von  Berlichingen,  the  well-known  robber-knight  with 
the  "  Iron  Hand,"  whose  castle  lay  on  the  Kocher,  in 
Franconia,  and  whom  they  had  compelled  to  take  the  chief 
command ;  and  also  by  Wendel  Hippler,  chancellor  of  a 
Prince  of  Hohenlohe,  who  had  voluntarily  engaged  in  their 
cause.  Hippler  advised  the  peasants  to  take  into  their  pay 
the  many  lansquenets  who  were  friendly  to  their  cause,  inured 
to  war,  and  ready  to  join  them ;  and  especially  he  tried  to 
persuade  them  to  unite  themselves  with  the  lower  nobility 
(gentry).  But  the  peasants  were  too  stingy  ;  they  presumed 
on  their  own  great  numbers,  by  which  they  thought  they 
would  be  able  to  make  up  for  their  want  of  military  experi- 
ence. Besides  Berlichingen,  however,  we  find  other  noblemen, 
such  as  the  Counts  of  Wertheim  and  Henneberg,  and  Florian 


74  CHARLES    V. 

Geyer,  as  captains  of  the  peasants.  They  were  the  Mirabeaus 
of  those  days.  Wendel  Hippler  conceived  comprehensive 
plans  for  the  thorough  reform  of  the  Empire.  He  held  on  the 
1 2th  of  May,  1525,  a  high  parliament  of  the  peasantry  at 
Heilbronn  on  the  Neckar,  their  head-quarters.  At  this 
assembly  the  ideas  which  afterwards  became  those  of  the 
French  Revolution  of  178g  were  for  the  first  time  proclaimed 
in  their  full  bearing.  It  was  proposed  "  to  abolish  the  feudal 
burdens  and  to  indemnify  the  princes  and  barons  for  their  loss 
from  the  ecclesiastical  estates,  which  were  to  be  secularised  ; 
both  the  Church  and  the  administration  of  the  law  were  to  be 
radically  reformed  ;  free  trade  to  be  established  by  abolishing 
the  tolls  and  customs  ;  a  decennial  tax  for  the  Emperor  to  be 
levied;  and  uniform  measures  and  weights  to  be  introduced. 
The  peasants  were  to  be  represented  at  the  Diet  of  the 
Empire  as  a  separate  estate,  by  the  side  of  the  clergy,  the 
princes,  the  barons,  and  the  towns." 

But  the  Lutheran  peasants,  unlike  the  Bohemian  Hussites, 
did  not  obey  their  leaders.  The  peasant,  it  was  said,  wanted 
to  be  master  himself.  Götz  von  Berlichingen  having  secretly 
left  them,  they  in  their  turn  were  defeated  and  destroyed 
singly.  Truchsess  von  Waldburg  took  a  terrible  revenge. 
Würtzburg,  which  the  peasants  had  taken,  and  where  they 
besieged  the  bishop  in  the  castle,  had  to  be  given  up  to 
Waldburg,  after  which  he  inflicted  most  awful  chastisement 
on  the  rebels.  The  other  princes  did  the  same,  the  spiritual 
ones  showing  themselves  not  the  least  bloodthirsty.  The 
Elector  of  Treves  and  the  Bishop  of  Würtzburg  made  a 
progress  through  their  countries,  accompanied  by  an  execu- 
tioner, to  have  the  culprits  put  to  death  before  their  own 
eyes :  he  of  Treves  is  even  said  to  have  cut  off  heads  with 
his  own  hands.  As  if  to  show  the  common  people  the  in- 
genuity of  persons  of  exalted  birth  in  inventing  the  greatest 
possible  variety  of  tortures  and  excruciating  punishments — 
fingers,  noses,  and  ears  were  cut  off,  eyes  scooped  out,  the 
culprits  broken  on  the  wheel,  lacerated  with  red-hot  pincers, 
flayed  alive,  impaled,  and  roasted  by  slow  fires.  All  were, 
however,  surpassed  in  cruelty  by  Anthony,  Duke  of  Lorraine, 


THE     PEASANTS      WAR  75 

the  brother  of  the  founder  of  the  celebrated  house  of  Guise, 
and  of  the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine.  He  caused  at  Saverne,  in 
Alsace,  a  band  of  as  many  as  18,000  peasants  to  be  put  to  the 
sword,  an  atrocity  the  more  revolting  as  he  had  previously 
pardoned  them. 

Besides  these  disturbances  near  the  Rhine,  the  Maine, 
the  Neckar,  and  the  Lake  of  Constance,  there  were  other 
peasants'  riots  in  Thuringia  during  the  first  four  months  of 
the  year  1525.  This  insurrection  was  headed  by  Thomas 
Münzer ;  but  here  the  rising  had  a  religious  character. 
Münzer  had  distinguished  himself  before  in  the  religious 
troubles  at  Wittenberg,  got  up  by  him  in  conjunction  with 
Dr.  Carlstadt,  which,  however,  were  crushed  by  Luther  in 
their  very  outbreak.  Now  Münzer  came  forth  as  a  heavenly 
prophet,  pretending  to  have  spoken  face  to  face  with  God, 
as  Moses  did.  He  inveighed  very  vehemently  against 
Dr.  Luther,  whom,  in  a  pamphlet  published  in  1524,  under 
the  title  "  Against  the  Spiritless  Soft-living  Flesh  at  Witten- 
berg," he  called  Dr.  Lügner  (Har),  and  he  charged  him  with 
having  made  the  Reformation  an  affair  of  the  princes,  whereas 
he  himself  would  carry  it  out  as  an  affair  of  the  people. 
Münzer  then  already  preached  the  principles  of  communism, 
which  have  turned  up  again  in  our  days.  He  said :  "  The 
princes  take  all  God's  creatures  for  their  property,  even  the 
fish  in  the  water  and  the  birds  of  the  air.  On  the  other  hand, 
they  say  to  the  poor,  *  It  is  God's  commandment,  Thou  shalt 
not  steal.'  They  themselves  grind  and  fleece  all ;  but  as 
soon  as  a  poor  man  lays  hold  even  of  the  least  that  is  not  his 
he  is  hung,  and  Dr.  Liar  says  Amen  to  all  this.  The  Lord 
has  given  the  earth  to  the  faithful  as  their  inheritance ;  all 
government  ought  to  be  carried  on  only  according  to  the 
Bible  and  to  Divine  revelation  ;  princes,  nobles,  and  priests 
are  not  wanted.  In  the  kingdom  of  God  all  men  ought  to  be 
equal ;  all  men  also  ought  to  live  in  a  community  of  goods,  for  all  are 
brethren." 

Thomas  Münzer  established  himself  in  the  small  imperial 
town  of  Mühlhausen,  where,  with  the  help  of  the  common 
people,  he   ousted   the   magistrates,   and   made   himself   the 


j6  CHARLES    V. 

preacher  and  master  of  the  town.  In  a  printed  manifesto  he 
called  himself  "Thomas  Münzer,  with  the  hammer";  pro- 
claiming in  plain  words  that  all  princes  were  to  be  banished 
or  killed.  From  Mühlhausen  he  overran  the  whole  of 
Thuringia,  where  his  peasants,  like  those  of  Southern 
Germany,  began  to  destroy  the  castles  and  monasteries. 
At  the  suggestion  of  Luther,  the  Elector  John,  called  the 
Constant,  of  Saxony — the  brother  of  Frederic  the  Wise, 
who  had  just  died  in  his  quiet  chamber  at  Lochau,  in  the 
Wittenberg  district,  after  having  strongly  urged  his  brother 
to  deal  kindly  and  cautiously  with  the  peasants — allied 
himself  with  Philip  the  Magnanimous,  Landgrave  of  Hesse, 
and  with  the  Duke  Henry  of  Brunswick.  Part  of  their  united 
troops,  under  the  command  of  Philip  of  Hesse,  encountered 
the  hosts  of  the  peasants  near  Frankenhausen,  in  Thuringia, 
at  the  foot  of  the  Kyffhäuser  Mountain,  on  the  15th  of 
May,  1525. 

Münzer  fought  to  the  last  with  the  greatest  courage, 
announcing  to  his  men  certain  victory  against  the  army  of  the 
princes,  and  assuring  them  that  he  would  catch  all  the  bullets 
of  the  enemy  in  his  sleeves,  and  that  hosts  of  angels  would 
come  down  from  heaven  to  fight  by  their  side.  Just  as  the 
battle  began,  a  beautiful  rainbow  appeared  in  the  sky. 
"  Look !  look !  "  said  Münzer,  "  here  is  a  token  of  the  Lord's 
mercy  and  favour."  A  gentleman  who  came  from  the  land- 
grave to  negotiate  was,  without  further  ado,  stabbed  by 
Münzer's  orders.  The  peasants,  having  barricaded  them- 
selves behind  their  waggons,  prepared  for  the  stoutest 
resistance.  But  the  battle  was  decided  in  a  few  moments. 
The  artillery  of  the  princes  did  the  work,  just  as  it  had  done  at 
Landstuhl  against  Sickingen.  Five  thousand  of  the  peasants 
were  shot  or  cut  down,  whilst,  with  their  hands  folded  in 
prayer,  they  were  waiting  for  the  Lord  to  fight  their  battle. 
Münzer  fled  to  Frankenhausen,  where  he  concealed  himself  in 
the  hayloft  of  a  house.  A  soldier,  who  happened  for  some 
purpose  or  other  to  go  there,  found  his  pocket-book  by  mere 
chance ;  after  which  the  prophet  was  dragged  forth  from  his 
hiding-place,  first  tortured,  and  then  beheaded. 


THE     peasants'    WAR  77 

After  the  battle  of  Frankenhausen  the  most  cruel  execu- 
tions were  enacted,  by  which,  according  to  a  rough  calculation, 
nearly  350,000  peasants  in  all  parts  of  Germany  perished. 
The  worst  consequence  of  all  for  the  survivors  was,  that  their 
bondage  became  even  more  oppressive  than  before.  Then, 
for  the  first  time,  the  game  laws  gave  the  nobles  an  exclusive 
right  of  chase,  not  merely  over  their  own  property,  but  also 
over  the  lands  of  their  vassals.  In  some  parts  only,  where 
the  peasants  were  not  put  down  by  force  of  arms,  better  con- 
ditions were  obtained ;  as  for  instance  in  the  Breisgau  and  in 
Upper  Austria.  The  Tyrolese  also  succeeded  in  maintaining 
their  ancient  liberties :  they  remained  the  freest  of  all  German 
peasants ;  as  likewise  did  the  Salzburgers,  whose  peace  was 
made  in  1526  by  George  von  Frundsberg.  Luther  asserted 
that  bondage  was  allowed  by  Holy  Scripture.  He  declared 
to  Hildebrand  von  Einsiedel,  who  entertained  some  scruples 
about  the  hard  servitude  of  the  peasantry,  "The  common 
man  must  be  heavily  laden,  otherwise  he  grows  wanton. 
Where  there  are  good  poor  people  your  honour  will  know  how 
to  deal  leniently  with  them."  But  he  was  honest  enough  to 
allow  himself  to  be  taught  by  experience.  He  wrote,  some  time 
after:  "I  would  lay  a  wager  that,  if  the  peasants'  riots  had 
not  occurred,  there  would  have  been  a  rising  of  the  nobility 
against  the  princes,  and  perhaps  a  rising  of  the  princes 
against  the  Emperor.  So  critically  did  the  fate  of  Gevmany 
tremble  in  the  balance.  Now,  however,  as  the  peasants  have 
fallen,  they  alone  are  the  black  sheep,  and  the  nobles  and 
princes  come  out  clear,  and  look  as  if  they  had  never  intended 
any  harm.  Yet  that  will  not  deceive  the  Lord.  He  has 
thereby  given  them  a  warning  likewise  to  be  faithful  on  their 
part  to  their  own  master  (the  Emperor)." 

After  the  great  defeat  which  the  nobles  had  suflfered  by  the 
downfall  of  Sickingen  in  1523,  and  the  peasants  in  the  battle 
of  Frankenhausen  in  1525, — after  these  two  heavy  thunder- 
storms which  had  followed  the  dawn  of  the  Reformation, 
the  character  of  the  movement  underwent  a  considerable 
change.  Until  then  it  had  been  a  popular  movement.  Now 
the  princes  came  forth  to  place  themselves  at  its  head,  and 


78  CHARLES    V. 

Luther  attached  himself  more  and  more  closely  to  them.     He 
who  had  hitherto  maintained  his  independent  position,  who 
had  refused  to  make  common  cause  with  the  nobles,  with 
Hütten   and   Sickingen,  and  who   had  completely  kept  the 
peasants  at  bay,  did  now  join  the  princes,  into  whose  hands, 
it  cannot  be  denied,  he  delivered  the  new  Church.     In  1524, 
the  Margrave  Albert  of  Brandenburg,  Grand  Master  of  the 
Teutonic  Order,  came  to  him  at  Wittenberg.     Luther  advised 
him  to  secularise  the  province  of  Prussia,  which  was   the 
property  of  that  order.     This  seed  fell  on  good  ground,  and 
yielded  a  luxuriant  crop.     As  early  as  towards  the  end  of 
1524,  a  state  paper  was  written,  very  likely  in  Saxony,  and  at 
any  rate  by  a  Lutheran  pen,  in  which  the  principle  was  laid 
down  that  all  the  ecclesiastical  estates  of  the  Empire  should  be 
confiscated  and  employed  for  secular  purposes.     Luther  was 
convinced  that  the  princes  alone  were  able  to  keep  discipline 
in  the  new  Church :  it  is  true  that  he  looked  upon  them  only 
as  bishops  to  make  shift  with  for  the  present,  out  of  sheer 
necessity,  conferring  on  them  the  episcopal  power  de  facto  only. 
But  this  was  again  a  most  impolitic  step,  for  this  possession 
de  facto  was  soon  changed  into  one  de  jure,  might  standing  in 
place  of  right.    In  1523,  Luther  had  still  vindicated  the  right  of 
self-government  for  the  Church  in  his  letter  to  the  Bohemians: 
"  Proof  and  argument  from  the  Scriptures,  that  a  Christian 
congregation  has  power  to  judge  all  doctrine  and  to  institute 
and  depose  its  preachers."     Even  as  late  as  1526,  the  Land- 
grave of  Hesse  tried,  with  the  help  of  a  Frenchman,  Lambert 
of  Avignon,  to  rebuild  the  Church  on  a  democratical  founda- 
tion, as  it  had  been  among  the  first  Christians.     But  this 
constitution  did  not  gain  ground  in  the  Lutheran  Church :  it 
only  became  the  corner-stone   of  the   Reformed   (Calvinist) 
Church,  which,  however,  was  completely  and  widely  separated 
from  the   Lutheran,  on   account   of  the   quarrel   about   the 
Eucharist.     The  reformed  German,  Swiss,  French,  Dutch, 
and  Scotch  Churches,  as  also  the  American  Protestants,  have 
stuck  to  the  principle  that  the  power  in  the  Church  rested 
with  the  whole  congregation  :  in  the  Lutheran  Church  it  fell 
entirely  into  the  hands  of  the  princes.     The  Calvinist  Church 


THE     ORIGIN     OF     SEPARATE     CHURCHES  79 

adopted  a  republican,  the  Lutheran  a  monarchical,  constitution. 
With  this  immense  difference  in  the  organisation  of  both,  the 
first  great  split  arose  between  the  seceders  from  Popery. 
Luther  went  so  far  in  his  aversion  to  the  republicanised 
Calvinists  in  Switzerland  and  in  the  free  imperial  cities  of 
South  Germany,  Strassburg,  Basle,  Frankfort-on-the- Maine, 
which  were  afterwards  joined  by  the  Netherlands,  that  he 
expressly  declared  that  he  "  would  seven  times  rather  unite  with 
the  Roman  Catholics  than  with  the  Calvinists  !  " 

When,  at  the  Diet  of  Spires,  in  1526,  Charles  V. — having 
since  the  victory  of  Pavia  been  at  enmity  with  the  Pope — 
issued  the  decree  that  "  every  member  of  the  Empire,  until  a 
general  council,  was,  in  matters  of  religion,  to  follow  that 
line  which  he  should  deem  best,  and  as  he  thought  to  be 
able  to  answer  for  in  the  face  of  God  and  the  Emperor,"  the 
sanction  of  imperial  law  was  stamped  on  the  principle  of  the 
autonomy  of  the  princes  in  the  Churches  of  their  territories, 
and  thus  the  Reformation  was  entirely  left  to  their  pleasure. 
This  was  the  origin  of  the  separate  Churches  according  to 
the  divisions  of  the  different  territories,  which  were  organised 
and  managed  at  will  by  the  different  princes  and  magistrates 
of  the  free  cities.  Thus  the  Lutheran  Church  became  but  an 
aggregate  of  separate  territorial  establishments,  loosely  linked 
together  ;  the  unity  which  had  ceased  in  the  State  ceased  also 
in  the  Church,  where,  likewise,  diversity  and  "particularism" 
was  acknowledged  as  the  leading  principle.  The  Reformers 
sought,  for  the  illegitimate  reform  of  the  Church,  a  support  in  the 
secular  legitimacy  of  the  princes.  They  therefore  now  also  proclaimed 
the  principle  of  the  absolute  political  supremacy  of  the  powers  that  be, 
and  of  the  duty  of  passive  obedience  in  the  subject.  They  not  only 
withdrew  from  every  political  opposition,  hut  decidedly  declared  against 
it.  Thus  the  exclusion  of  the  people  from  political  life  now  became  an 
article  of  faith  ;  the  natural  consequence  of  which  was  that  the  masses 
lost  every  interest  in  public  affairs. 

Together  with  absolute  political  power  and  spiritual  supre- 
macy, the  church  property  also  fell  to  the  princes.  All  the 
conventual  institutions  were  abolished.  Their  revenues  ought 
to  have  been  employed  in  endowing  parish  livings,  and,  as 


8o  CHARLES     V. 

Luther  most  earnestly  urged,  in  establishing  schools  for 
educating  the  brutalised  German  peasantry,  whose  ignorance 
and  degraded  position  he  so  frequently  deplores  in  his 
writings.  But  the  least  part  of  the  confiscated  church  pro- 
perty went  to  the  parish  ministers;  somewhat  more  to  the 
schools,  yet  only  to  the  classical  ones  and  to  the  universities. 
The  common  Lutheran  clergyman  received  less  than  what 
sufficed  for  the  indispensable  necessaries  of  life.  The 
Lutheran  Church  has  been  ruined  by  its  poverty,  as  the  Roman  by 
its  wealth.  The  village  schools,  which  Luther  so  earnestly 
recommended  to  be  established  from  the  conventual  property, 
and  for  the  benefit  of  which  he,  in  152g,  published  his 
"  Small  Catechism  for  Children,"  were  miserably  neglected  ; 
and  long  after  the  Reformation  the  old  brutality  and  igno- 
rance were  rife  among  the  country  people.  The  princely 
exchequers,  on  the  other  hand,  enriched  themselves  with  the 
capitular  and  conventual  revenues,  and  the  nobles  were  by  no 
means  bashful  in  helping  themselves.  Luther  complains 
most  bitterly  of  this  wickedness,  which  prevailed  in  Saxony 
and  in  Hesse  also,  where,  as  the  landgrave  himself  wrote  to 
Luther,  there  was  much  "  scrambling  "  about  the  property  of 
the  convents.  The  landgrave  set  the  example.  He  gave  to 
the  son  of  his  guardian.  Count  Philip  of  Waldeck,  at  his 
christening,  as  a  sponsor's  gift,  the  rich  convent  of  Arolsen. 
Melanchthon,  in  his  letters  written  to  his  most  confidential 
friends,  calls  these  patrons  of  the  Evangelical  Church,  the 
Landgrave  of  Hesse,  the  Elector  of  Saxony,  and  others, 
without  any  circumlocution,  "  Centaurs,  tyrants,  and  despisers 
of  God."  He  says  that  they  care  only  for  worldly  interests, 
and  mourns  over  the  abolition  of  the  old  constitution,  the 
princely  bishops  having  now  been  replaced  by  episcopal 
princes. 

When  at  last  the  princes  came  to  settle  with  the  new 
Protestant  clergy,  the  princes  kept  the  power  and  the  money 
for  themselves,  and  to  the  clergy  they  left — the  most  profound 
respect  of  the  poor  people. 

In  Saxony,  at  a  later  period,  in  1550,  the  Elector  Maurice 
established  with  some  of  the  conventual  property  the  three 


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CHARLES    V. 

.,    in    establishir?  for 

in  peasa^ 
0    freque.- 
of  the  conftscate- 
isters;  soinewhat  mor^.  d  ir- j 
...d  ones  ivd  Lo  the  universities. 
i.  Lie  CO  lergyman  received  less  than  what 

'"->''  ,,easable    nece^ries    of    hfe.      The 

fntt  mined  by  its  pd^vty,  as  the  Roman  by 
::e  schools,  whiclßLuther  so  earnestly 
otablished  froni./lh^pconventual  property, 
and  for  the  benefit  ^  which  he^in;^52g,  published  his 
"Small  Catechism  foiB Children,"  ^re  miserably  neglected; 
and  long  after  the  ReForraation  ih^  o^  brutality  and  igno- 
rance were  rife  amoi^  the  cowtit^  p^ple.  The  princely 
exchequers,  on  the  otfe^r  hand, -^nricheÖ^  themselves  with  the 
capitular  and  conveuti^  revenu^,  a^d  the  nobles  were  by  no 
means   bashful    i  ',  '    '^-    ^    >.    Luther  complains 

most  bitterjr     f  $.  ^    r:^.  '(prevailed  in  Saxony 

and  in  j  g.  e.  as  t:j^  L-^dgffive  himself  wrote  to 

%>■'■■■-■  ' Mjprbli^  "^bout  the  property  of 
^  ^  t^  example.     He  gave  to 

•^  ^  ^of  Waldeck,  at  his 

^  ^    2  "convent  of  \x-''^:-c-). 

hon,  in  v  >^^">-*  b'-'''  most  C' 

V 

, .      ä 

•-  the  abolition  c. 
ui^iijps  having    now   been    i 

■.  the  princes  came  \ 
•'■>"  princes  k^ept  the  j  -    . . 

>  the  clergy  they  left — the  .'  i 

i^eriod,  in  1550,  the  Elector  Maurice 
est  '^  of  the  conventual  property  the  three 


SPOLIATION     OF    CHURCH     PROPERTY  8l 

"princely  schools"  {Fnvstenschilen)  at  Pforta,  Grimma,  and 
Meissen.  In  Hesse,  some  of  the  proceeds  of  the  confiscations 
were  spent  on  the  Free  College  of  the  University  of  Marburg  ; 
in  Brunswick,  on  the  Gymnasia.  Most  of  all  was  done  in 
Würtemberg,  where  there  were  scarcely  any  nobles  holding 
their  fiefs  under  the  duke,  and  where  the  honest  and  energetic 
Duke  Christopher  reigned.  Under  his  auspices  the  large 
theological  college  at  Tübingen,  called  the  Stift,  and  a  number 
of  cloister  schools  at  Maulbronn,  Bebenhausen,  Blaubeuren, 
and  Hirsau,  afterwards  Denkendorf,^  were  established.  In 
Lüneburg  and  Mecklenburg  the  nobles  compelled  the  govern- 
ment to  change  the  convents  into  secular  chapters,  with 
canonries  for  the  younger  sons  and  the  daughters  of  the 
nobility. 

The  princes,  as  may  well  be  imagined,  had  their  power 
vastly  increased  by  the  secularisation  of  the  ecclesiastical 
property ;  yet  the  free  towns  and  cities  at  that  time  still 
formed  a  very  compact  power  in  the  Empire  by  their  side. 
All  the  commerce  was  in  the  hands  of  the  cities,  and  there 
were  even  then  in  Germany  banking  firms,  whose  heads,  like 
the  Florentine  Medicis,  became  princes  from  merchants,  as, 
for  instance,  the  Eggenbergs  of  Grätz  and  the  Fuggers  of 
Augsburg.  Citizens  like  these  were  a  power  in  the  State, 
of  whose  importance  Charles  V.  was  perfectly  aware.  The 
Fuggers,  as  has  been  mentioned  before,  had  played  a  very 
prominent  part  in  his  election  as  Roman  Emperor.  Before 
the  discovery  of  America,  and  of  a  shorter  road  by  sea  to 
India,  whence  the  principal  riches  at  that  time  were  derived, 
the  cities  of  Southern  Germany,  as  well  as  those  forming 
the  Hanseatic  League  in  the  north,  were  possessed  of  very 

1  These  four  cloister  schools  (lower  seminaries)  are  now  Maulbronn, 
Urach,  Blaubeuren,  and  Schönthal.  The  Stift,  the  theological  seminary 
at  the  University  of  Tübingen,  is  likewise  still  in  existence,  and  furnishes 
the  majority  of  the  candidates  for  the  clerical  offices  of  the  Protestant 
Church  in  Würtemberg.  The  Church  property,  however,  was  confiscated 
during  the  reign  of  the  late  King,*  when,  supported  by  Napoleon,  he  over- 
threw the  constitution  of  the  country ;  and  the  expenses  of  those  establish- 
ments, like  all  the  rest,  are  now  borne  by  the  State. — Translator. 

*  Duke  Frederic,  who,  in  1806,  in  accordance  with  a  decree  of  Napoleon,  took  tbs 
title  of  King.    He  afterwards  joined  the  Allies. 

VOL.    I  6 


82  CHARLES    V. 

considerable  wealth  and  a  corresponding  amount  of  power. 
No  wonder  that  the  free  cities  with  the  most  determined  zeal 
embraced  the  new,  freer  principles  of  the  Reformation ;  in 
those  of  Southern  Germany  the  bankers  alone  stuck  to  the  old 
papal  faith.  The  cities  and  princes  of  Northern  Germany, 
being  thorough-going  partisans  of  Luther,  became  Charles's 
most  dangerous  opponents. 

The  Catholics,  especially  in  Southern  Germany,  the  secular 
princes  no  less  than  the  princes  of  the  Church,  the  bishops, 
had  at  an  early  stage  prepared  themselves  to  take  the  field 
against  the  party  of  the  Reformers.  As  early  as  the  year 
1524  Archduke  Ferdinand  of  Austria,  Duke  William  of 
Bavaria,  and  a  number  of  South  German  bishops  had  united 
in  a  league  at  Ratisbon.  Against  them  the  northern  princes, 
John  the  Constant,  elector  of  Saxony,  and  Philip  the  Mag- 
nanimous, landgrave  of  Hesse,  concluded  in  1526  the  league 
of  Torgau,  which  was  joined  by  the  Dukes  of  Brunswick- 
Luneburg,  the  Duke  of  Mecklenburg,  the  Prince  of  Anhalt, 
two  Counts  of  Mansfeldt,  and  by  the  most  important  free  city 
of  Northern  Germany,  Magdeburg.  The  firmness  of  the 
Elector  of  Saxony  brought  about  in  the  same  year  the  Decree 
of  Spires,  by  which  the  Reformation  was  henceforth  to  be  left 
to  the  conscience  of  the  princes.  But  at  a  new  Diet  at  Spires 
in  1529  the  Catholic  princes  of  the  Empire  again  openly  op- 
posed the  Reformation,  which  until  then  had  been  tolerated  ; 
and  they  caused  a  decree  to  be  passed  that  everything  should 
remain  in  statu  quo,  and  no  further  extension  of  the  reform 
be  admitted.  It  was  against  this  decree  that  the  Lutheran 
members  of  the  Diet  entered  their  celebrated  protest,  from 
which  they  received  the  name  of  Protestants.  It  was  regis- 
tered on  the  19th  of  April,  1529,  and  on  the  same  day  a 
deputation  was  despatched  to  carry  it  to  the  Emperor  in 
Italy.     The  deputies  met  his  Majesty  at  Placentia. 

Charles,  the  Catholic  King  of  Spain,  having  secured 
himself  against  his  rival  Francis  I.  by  a  tolerable  peace ; 
against  the  Grand  Turk,  the  ally  of  the  Most  Christian  King, 
by  money;  and  against  the  Pope  by  family  arrangements  in 
Italy;  gave  the  messengers  of  his  protesting  lieges  but  a  very 


DIET    OF    AUGSBURG  83 

cold  reception.  His  reply  was  that  they  should  expect  to  be 
severely  chastised,  unless  they  consented  at  once  to  drop  the 
protest.  He  now  travelled  by  short  stages  through  the  Tyrol 
by  way  of  Munich  to  Augsburg,  attended  by  his  Spanish, 
Italian,  and  Netherlandish  lords  and  councillors.  He  was 
also  met  by  the  delegates  of  the  Catholic  German  princes, 
who  wished  to  bring  him  over  to  their  interest ;  but  with  true 
Spanish  grandezza  he  wrapped  all  his  thoughts  in  impenetrable 
secrecy,  referring  everything  to  Augsburg.  Three  zealous 
Papists,  the  Dukes  William  of  Bavaria  and  George  of  Saxe- 
Dresden  and  the  Elector  Joachim  of  Brandenburg,  rode  to 
meet  him  as  far  as  Innsbruck.  After  the  death  of  the  chan- 
cellor Gattinara,  who  stood  high  in  the  Emperor's  favour,  and 
who  in  the  imperial  cabinet  had  even  to  the  last  advocated 
forbearance  and  moderation,  Charles  had  for  his  principal 
adviser  the  new  chancellor,  Nicholas  Perrenot  Granvella,  the 
celebrated  father  of  the  equally  celebrated  Cardinal  Granvella. 
Nicholas  accompanied  the  Emperor  to  Augsburg,  and,  in 
direct  violation  of  the  "  Capitulation,"  became,  although  a 
foreigner,  the  Keeper  of  the  Imperial  Seal  of  Germany.  He 
was  perfectly  qualified  to  conduct  the  business  of  the  general 
European  policy ;  but  he  was  also  what  we  should  now  call 
an  ultra-absolutist,  and  a  most  zealous  Papist.  Some  time 
before  the  Diet  he  was  heard  to  say,  "  The  Lutherans  will 
fly  in  all  directions,  like  pigeons  before  the  hawk," 


5. — The  Diet  of  Augshtirg,  and  the  French  wars  to  the  Peace  of 
Cr  espy,  1544. 

Charles  now  appeared  in  Germany  as  quite  a  different  man 
from  what  he  had  been  nine  years  before  at  his  coronation  at 
Aix-la-Chapelle  and  at  the  Diet  of  Worms.  He  was  now 
in  the  prime  of  life,  being  thirty  years  old.  During  the  eight 
years  (from  1521  to  152g)  which  he  passed  in  Spain  he  had 
quietly  gone  through  his  apprenticeship  as  a  ruler,  from 
which  he  came  out  an  accomplished  politician  and  a  worthy 
disciple  of  the  Spanish  priesthood.     The  teacher  who  had 

6—2 


84  CHARLES     V. 

"  boiled  him  hard"  and  put  his  iron  stamp  upon  him  was  no 
other  than  his  confessor,  the  Dominican  Garcia  de  Loaysa, 
afterwards  Cardinal  and  Bishop  of  Osma,  subsequently  of 
Siguenza,  and  at  last  Archbishop  of  Seville  and  Grand  In- 
quisitor. He  accompanied  Charles  in  1529  to  Bologna,  after 
which  he  became  his  ambassador  at  Rome.  From  that  time 
he  kept  up  a  correspondence  with  his  imperial  pupil.  His 
letters  from  the  year  1530  to  1532,  during  which  Charles 
stayed  in  Germany,  were  some  years  ago  pubHshed  from  the 
archives  of  Simancas,  by  G.  Heine.  They  are  a  remark- 
able monument  of  Spanish  priestly  policy,  to  which  every 
tender  feeling  of  humanity  is  completely  unknown.  Garcia 
de  Loaysa  did  his  utmost  to  force  upon  the  young  Emperor 
his  own  point  of  view,  that  with  regard  to  the  heretics,  "  those 
dogs,  there  should  be  no  question  whatever  of  the  fancy  of  converting 
souls  to  God ;  it  was  quite  sufficient  to  compel  bodies  to  obedience.'' 
He  wrote  once  to  Charles  the  following  spiritual  recipe:  "  If 
you  are  determined  to  bring  back  Germany,  I  see  no  better 
means  than  to  induce,  by  gifts  and  flatteries,  those  who  take 
the  lead  in  the  learned  world  and  in  the  State  to  return  to  our 
faith,  which  being  done,  you  are  first  to  issue  for  the  common 
people  your  imperial  edicts  and  Christian  exhortations,  and 
if  they  will  not  obey  them,  then  the  true  rhubarb  to  heal  them 
is  force}  Such  were  the  insinuations  under  the  guidance 
of  which  Charles  took  his  measures  in  Germany.  He  now 
stood  on  the  acme  of  his  political  power.  His  most  mighty 
enemies  were  partly  humbled  and  partly  pacified  ;  one  half  of 
Europe  obeyed  him,  and  just  then  one  of  his  subjects,  the 
Spaniard  Francis  Pizarro,  had  laid  Peru  at  his  feet — the  land 
of  gold,  where  the  precious  metal  was  found  in  such  abund- 
ance as  had  never  been  known  before. 

This  powerful  ruler,  not  without  intention,  made  his  ap- 
pearance at  Augsburg  on  the  eve  of  Corpus  Christi,  the 
highest  festival  of  the  Roman  Church,  there  to  hold  his 
second  Diet.  Quarters  were  prepared  for  him  at  the  palace 
of  the  "  Frohnhof,"  the  mansion  of  the  Bishop  of  Augsburg; 

1  In  a  letter  written  from  Rome,  dated  the  i8th  of  June,  1530,  shortly 
after  the  presentation  of  the  Augsburg  Confession. 


DIET    OF    AUGSBURG  85 

but  as  it  was  full  six  months  before  he  left  that  city,  he 
removed  to  the  house  of  his  banker,  Fugger. 

When  Charles  rode  into  Augsburg,  15th  of  June,  1530, 
he  did  not  at  once  retire  to  his  quarters,  but,  after  having 
alighted,  he  was,  according  to  the  then  usage,  led  to  the 
cathedral,  with  his  brother,  King  Ferdinand  of  Hungary,  and 
all  the  electors,  cardinals,  and  other  bishops  and  princes  who 
had  gone  out  on  horseback  to  meet  him.  The  following 
account  is  given  by  an  eye-witness  from  the  household  of  the 
Elector  of  Mayence : 

'*  It  was  late,  and  the  cathedral  nearly  dark  :  a  great 
many  lighted  torches  were  therefore  brought;  directions  also 
were  given  not  to  admit  the  people,  in  order  to  prevent  a 
crowd.  His  Majesty  was  first  led  up  through  the  middle  of 
the  nave,  at  the  upper  end  of  which  there  were  three  prie- 
dieus,  his  Majesty  kneeling  down  on  the  centre  one,  the  King 
of  Hungary  on  the  right,  and  the  legate  Campeggio  on  the 
left ;  but  their  chairs  were  not  as  high  as  the  Emperor's. 
The  Bishop  of  Augsburg,  with  his  suffragans  and  the  Abbot 
of  St.  Ulrich,  all  wearing  their  mitres,  stood  opposite.  The 
Emperor  and  the  cardinals  and  the  electors — the  Elector  John 
of  Saxony  carrying  the  sword  of  the  Empire — and  the  other 
bishops,  princes,  and  lords,  besides  the  rest  of  the  clergy,  were 
standing  around  him.  The  Bishop  of  Augsburg,  with  his 
suffragans,  then  began  to  sing,  ^Et  ne  nos  inducas  in  tentationem, 
&>€.;  Domine  salvwn  fac  Impevatovem,  S'c;  esto  eis  turris  forti- 
tudinis,  S'C.*  And  then  followed  some  fine  collects  siißer 
Impevatorem.  After  these  ceremonies  his  Imperial  Majesty, 
his  Highness  of  Hungary,  and  the  legate  were  conducted  by 
the  light  of  many  torches,  one  of  which  I  carried,  to  the  high 
altar,  where  they  knelt  down  ;  whilst  the  Bishop  of  Augsburg, 
with  his  suffragans  and  the  abbot,  stepped  out  before  the  altar, 
and  again  began  to  chant  *  Et  ne  nos  inducas,  cS»^.,'  to  which 
the  choir  responded,  *  Amen.''  Then  the  legafus  apostoliciis 
rose,  made  the  sign  of  the  cross  on  the  altar,  kissed  it,  and 
gave  the  benedictio  apostolica;  in  return,  his  Imperial  Majesty 
and  his  Highness  of  Hungary  bowed  very  low,  as  did  also  the 
other  electors,  princes,  bishops,  and  lords :  but  the  Landgrave 


86  CHARLES    V. 

of  Hesse  smiled,  and  crouched  behind  a  large  candelabrum.  After 
the  benediction,  they  began  to  sing  the  Te  Deum  laudamus, 
^vhen  his  Imperial  Majesty  and  the  King  rose,  and  conversed 
with  my  most  gracious  master  of  Mayence  about  the  proces- 
sion which  was  to  be  held  on  the  following  day,  being  the 
festival  of  Corpus  Christi.  Of  all  the  electors,  princes, 
bishops,  and  lords,  the  Elector  of  Saxony  and  the  Landgrave 
of  Hesse  alone  remained  standing.  The  Lutheran  Margrave 
George  of  Anspach  at  first  knelt  down  likewise ;  but  when 
he  saw  that  the  Elector  of  Saxony  did  not  kneel,  he  rose 
to  his  feet." 

Charles  sent  invitations  to  all  the  princes  to  join  in  the 
Corpus  Christi  procession.  The  Protestant  princes  were 
included  in  this  summons,  which  in  their  case  was  coupled 
with  a  prohibition  to  have  sermons  of  their  own  on  that  day. 
They,  however,  early  in  the  following  morning,  rode  to  the 
Emperor's  quarters,  and  frankly  told  him  that  they  would  not 
join  the  procession,  but  abide  by  their  own  faith.  The  Mar- 
grave George  of  Anspach  and  Prince  Wolfgang  of  Anhalt 
expressed  themselves  to  this  effect,  that  rather  than  swerve 
from  the  word  of  God,  they  would  at  once  kneel  down  to  have 
their  heads  cut  off.  Charles  then  tried  to  soothe  them,  saying, 
in  his  Brabant  dialect,  "  Löven  Fürsten  nit  Kopp  ab,  nit  Kopp 
ab ! "  ("Dear  princes,  not  heads  off,  not  heads  off! ")  It  being 
the  duty  of  the  Elector  of  Saxony,  as  Marshal  of  the  Empire, 
to  bear  the  sword  before  the  Emperor,  he  was  induced  to  join 
in  the  procession  by  the  representations  of  his  divines,  who 
pointed  out  to  him  "that  the  man  of  God,  Elisha,  had  allowed 
Naaman,  captain  of  the  host  of  the  king  of  Syria,  to  bow  himself  in 
the  house  of  Rimnion,  when  his  master  went  to  worship  there,  and 
leaned  on  his  hand."  When,  however,  the  host  was  elevated, 
he  and  Philip  the  Magnanimous  did  not  bow. 

Nine  days  after,  on  the  25th  of  June,  1530,  at  three  o'clock 
in  the  afternoon,  the  Emperor  Charles  had  the  celebrated 
Augsburg  Confession,  in  which  the  doctrine  of  the  Protestants 
was  embodied,  presented  to  him  in  his  quarters.  It  was 
signed  by  the  five  princes  of  Saxony,  Hesse,  Lüneburg,  Ans- 
pach, and  Anhalt,  and  the  two  imperial  towns  of  Nuremberg 


THE    SMALCALDE    LEAGUE  87 

and  Reutlingen ;  the  Saxon  chancellor,  Dr.  Brück,  read  it  out 
in  German :  the  demand  of  the  Emperor  to  have  it  read  out 
in  Latin  having  been  met  by  the  remark  of  the  Elector  of 
of  Saxony,  that  as  they  were  on  German  soil,  his  Imperial 
Majesty  would  allow  the  German  tongue  to  be  used. 

Charles  was  highly  incensed  against  the  Elector  of  Saxony, 
the  head  of  the  German  Protestants.  John  the  Constant  had 
sued  for  a  sister  of  the  Emperor  as  wife  for  his  son,  the  Elec- 
toral Prince  (afterwards  the  Elector  John  Frederic),  in  fulfil- 
ment of  the  promise  which  Charles,  at  his  election  as  Emperor, 
had  made  to  Frederic  the  Wise.  This  match  having  been 
broken  off,  John  and  John  Frederic  felt  it  most  keenly  as  the 
greatest  insult.  Charles  had  also  until  now  withheld  from 
John  the  usual  investiture  of  the  electoral  dignity,  and  he  now 
threatened  to  deprive  him  of  it  altogether,  unless  he  dropped 
the  protestation.  This  was  not  a  mere  empty  menace ;  for 
Charles  had  really  entertained  the  plan  of  making  Duke 
George  of  Misnia,  a  zealous  Papist,  Elector  in  his  stead.  But 
John  remained  constant.  The  Emperor  now  caused  the  con- 
fession of  the  Protestants  to  be  replied  to  in  a  very  weak 
"  Confutation ;  "  condemned  Luther's  doctrine  anew ;  and 
put  the  Edict  of  Worms  again  in  force.  He  then  closed  the 
Diet,  which  had  lasted  five  months.  The  Protestants,  on 
their  side,  protested ;  the  imperial  city  of  Augsburg,  to  the 
great  mortification  of  the  Emperor,  protesting  under  his  very 
eyes. 

Charles  went  from  Augsburg  to  Cologne,  where,  on  the 
5th  of  January,  1531,  he  caused  his  brother.  King  Ferdinand 
of  Hungary,  to  be  elected  King  of  the  Romans.  But  this 
election  was  not  only  protested  against  by  Protestant  Saxony, 
but  also  by  Papist  Bavaria.  The  aspect  of  affairs  became 
more  and  more  threatening.  Charles  went  to  Brussels  as 
early  as  on  the  27th  of  February,  1531.  The  Protestants 
concluded  their  defensive  and  offensive  alliance  at  Smalcalde ; 
the  contracting  parties  being  Saxony,  Hesse,  Lüneburg, 
Anhalt,  Mansfeld,  and  the  three  Hanseatic  towns  of  Lübeck, 
Bremen,  and  Magdeburg,  besides  Strassburg  and  seven  other 
South  German  cities.     In  the  following  year  an  alliance  was 


88  CHARLES     V. 

concluded  even  with  France,  at  Scheyern,  on  the  26th  of  May, 
1532,  which  was  joined  on  the  side  of  the  German  Protestants 
by  Saxony  and  Hesse,  and,  moreover,  by  the  Cathohc  Elector 
of  Bavaria. 

But  war  was  not  yet  declared  for  the  present.     Charles, 
following  the  advice  of  his  Spanish  confessor,  went  on  tem- 
porising and  dissembling,  only  rarely  allowing  some  chance 
word  to  escape  him,  from  which  his  real  and  ulterior  intention 
might  be  guessed.     The  Protestant  princes  themselves  met 
him    without    the    least    guile.     The    Elector    of    Saxony 
especially,   on   the   suggestion    of    Luther,   approached   him 
with   the   most    hearty   confidence.     Luther,   that    excellent 
divine  but  very  bad  politician,  was  completely  mistaken  in 
the  thorough-bred  Spaniard  Charles,  who,  taking  much  more 
after  his  mother  than  after  his  father,  had  been  entirely  con- 
verted by  the  training  of  his  confessor  into  a  Castilian,  so 
that  of  the  German  element  of  his  nature  very  little  remained 
in  him.     Luther  in  his  letters  calls  the  Emperor,  over  and 
over  again,  "  a  quite  godly  and  kind  heart,  but  surrounded 
by  many  devils."     He  always  held  to  it  that  the  Emperor  was 
not  his  own  master,  and  that  one  ought  to  pray  to  God  for 
him.      Even  so  late  as   1541,  after  the  last  useless  attempt 
which  was  made  at  the  colloquy  at  Ratisbon  to  bring  about  a 
union  with  the  Papists,  he  wrote  that,   "  not  Charles,  but 
the  devil  at  Mayence,  the  Elector  Albert,  was  Emperor." 
The  good-natured  Luther  little  suspected  the  Spanish  leading 
strings  in  which  the  Emperor  was  kept.     Luther,  moreover, 
was  thoroughly  averse  to  a  league  with  foreign  kings,   as 
he  firmly  believed  that  there  was  no  faith  and  truth  among 
them,  and  that  by  a  league  with  such  as  these  the  German 
Empire  would  be  torn  in  pieces,  and  given  up  to  the  Turks. 
Charles,  again,  showed  himself  peacefully  inclined,  the  danger 
from  the  Turks  having  once  more  modified  his  policy.    Soley- 
nian,  after  having  spent  three  years  in  preparations,  broke 
forth  anew  with  formidable  power  in  1532.     He  had  a  magni- 
ficent new  imperial  crown  made  for  the  occasion,  which  he 
carried  with  him,  to  put  it   on   his   head   in    Germany,  as 
"  Caliph  of  Roum,"  i.e.,  as  Roman  Emperor. 


THE     AFRICAN     EXPEDITIONS  89 

Amid  these  circumstances  which  forced  Charles  to  bide 
his  time,  the  first  reUgious  peace  was  concluded,  in  the  year 
1532,  at  Nuremberg,  in  which  Charles  promised  to  leave  the 
status  quo,  but  only  until  a  general  council  should  be  con- 
voked. The  Protestants  (Lutherans),  on  the  other  hand, 
were  obliged  expressly  to  sever  themselves  from  the  Reformed 
(Calvinists) ;  thus  completing  that  first  split  among  the 
seceders  from  Popery  which  was  to  bear  its  most  unhallowed 
fruits  for  Germany  in  the  Thirty  Years'  War.  Shortly  after 
the  first  religious  peace,  the  German  Protestants  lost  their 
head  in  the  Elector  John,  whose  successor,  John  Frederic, 
surnamed  the  Magnanimous,  was  far  from  enjoying  the  same 
respect  which  the  noble  conduct  of  his  father  had  forced  from 
the  Emperor. 

Soleyman,  when  he  saw  the  active  preparations  for  defence 
in  the  Austrian  countries,  and  especially  when  he  convinced 
•himself  that  Charles  had  concluded  peace  with  Martin 
Luther,  turned  suddenly  round  with  all  his  forces  to  the  East, 
where  he  began  a  great  war  with  the  Persians ;  on  which 
Charles,  towards  the  end  of  the  year  1532,  went  to  Italy  to 
arrange  matters  with  the  Pope  concerning  a  general  council. 
Charles  intended,  after  the  example  of  Constantine  the  Great, 
to  preside  over  this  council,  as  the  head  of  Christendom,  and 
to  direct  it.  This  was  not,  however,  at  all  what  the  Pope 
intended,  who  therefore  did  his  utmost  to  evade  the  demands 
of  the  Emperor.  The  latter  set  out,  in  1533,  for  Spain. 
There  he  prepared  a  great  naval  expedition  to  put  down  the 
intolerable  piracy  of  the  Turks.  At  that  period  the  pirate 
States  of  Barbary  had  been  formed  under  the  protection  of 
the  Turkish  Sultan.  The  pirate  Hayradin  Barbarossa,  one  of 
the  boldest  and  most  extraordinary  of  men,  had  made  himself 
master  of  the  Spanish  castle  on  the  island  off  the  coast  of 
Algiers,  and  founded  a  kingdom  there ;  and,  having  likewise 
seized  Tunis,  he  was  invested  by  Soleyman  with  the  dignity 
of  Capitan  Pasha,  High  Admiral  of  Turkey.  He  infested 
with  his  galleys  the  coasts  of  Italy  and  Spain,  plundering  and 
kidnapping  Christians,  spreading  terror  over  the  whole  of  the 
Mediterranean,  and  inflicting  immense  losses  by  seizing  the 


go  CHARLES    V. 

merchant  vessels.  In  vain  had  Doria,  with  eight  large  men- 
of-war  and  forty-four  galleys,  made  his  appearance  before 
the  Dardanelles.  Although  he  had  succeeded  in  taking  the 
Asiatic  castle,  all  his  attempts  against  the  European  failed. 
He,  however,  seized  Coron  in  the  Morea. 

Charles  sailed  on  the  i6th  of  June  from  Cagliari,  in 
Sardinia,  with  his  fleet,  which  was  commanded  by  Doria  as 
admiral,  and  which  contained  30,000  men,  to  the  conquest  of 
Tunis.  Whilst  he  attacked  the  walls  from  without,  the  great 
numbers  of  Christian  slaves  within  the  town  set  themselves 
free ;  and  thus,  returning  as  conqueror,  he  entered  Naples  at 
the  head  of  20,000  of  those  liberated  captives.  This  first 
expedition  having,  however,  failed  to  put  a  stop  to  the  piracies 
of  Barbarossa — which  the  latter,  after  the  conquest  of  Tunis, 
carried  on  from  Algiers — Charles  undertook,  in  1541,  another 
expedition  against  that  port,  notwithstanding  the  advice  of 
Doria  to  the  contrary.  The  expedition,  sailing  from  Majorca, 
was  overtaken  by  a  hurricane,  which  in  one  hour  destroyed 
14  large  and  114  smaller  ships  of  war,  with  8,000  men.  The 
enterprise,  therefore,  proved  a  complete  failure ;  and  the 
Emperor,  having  landed  in  Algiers  on  the  22nd  of  October, 
was,  on  the  22nd  of  November,  back  again  in  Majorca. 

In  1535  the  last  Sforza  died,  who  had  until  then  been  the 
possessor  of  Milan.  Immediately  the  King  of  France  again 
put  forth  his  claims  to  that  dukedom,  asking  the  Emperor  for 
investiture.  Charles  sent  to  Francis  the  ambiguous  yet  very 
significant  answer,  "  What  my  brother  the  King  of  France 
wishes,  I  wish  too."  Francis  on  this  occasion  proposed  an 
offensive  alliance,  offering  to  guarantee  to  Charles  the 
hereditary  possession  of  the  German  Imperial  Crown,  with 
absolute  sway,  if  he  would  cede  to  him  Milan,  Asti,  and 
Genoa.  Charles  did  not  enter  upon  it ;  and  Milan  became 
ultimately  (in  1538)  a  province  of  Spain. 

The  third  war  between  Spain  and  France  now  broke 
out.  Francis  I.  and  Henry  VIII.  of  England  sent  their 
ambassadors  to  Smalcalde ;  and  the  Protestant  princes 
renewed  their  alliance  in  1536.  Francis  took  Savoy.  Charles, 
not  taking  any  warning  from  the  first  invasion  of  Southern 


JOURNEY    THROUGH     FRANCE  gi 

France  by  the  Constable  of  Bourbon,  invaded  it  again,  and 
was  again  unable  to  reduce  Marseilles.  He  had  to  return, 
but  not  before  he  had  lost  his  brave  General  Leyva.  The 
Pope  negotiated  between  the  belligerents  a  ten  years'  truce  at 
Nice,  1538.  At  Aiguesmortes,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Rhone, 
Charles  and  Francis  had  an  interview,  at  which  the  Pope  also 
was  present.  As  Charles  arrived  in  the  harbour,  Francis 
rowed  to  his  ship  to  receive  him,  and  conducted  him  on  shore. 
Here  a  feast  was  prepared,  at  which  the  two  monarchs  re- 
mained until  late  at  night.  In  the  morning  the  Dauphin 
handed  to  the  Emperor  the  water  for  washing,  and  the  napkin, 
both  rulers  vying  with  each  other  in  mutual  demonstrations 
of  respect  and  goodwill.  The  city  of  Ghent,  in  the  Nether- 
lands, having,  on  account  of  a  new  tax,  rebelled  against 
Queen  Mary  of  Hungary,  regent  of  the  Netherlands,  Francis 
proposed  to  Charles  that  he  should  take  the  shortest  road 
through  France  to  the  Low  Countries.  Charles  accepted  the 
proposal.  His  jester,  indeed,  warned  him,  saying,  "  Charles's 
entering  France  would  be  a  folly  ;  but  Francis's  allowing  him 
to  leave  it  again  would  be  a  still  greater  one."  Charles  re- 
plied, "Just  because  we  know  that  he  is  more  foolish  than 
we  are,  we'll  pass  through  his  country."  And  pass  he  did. 
Charles,  accompanied  by  Alba,  was  everywhere  in  France 
received  with  the  greatest  honours ;  all  the  towns  through 
which  his  road  led  him  brought  him  their  keys.  At  Fontaine- 
bleau,  where  Francis  held  his  court,  the  most  splendid  fetes 
were  given  to  the  Emperor  for  a  fortnight.  From  Fontaine- 
bleau  Charles  made  his  solemn  entry  into  Paris,  on  the  ist  of 
January,  1540,  and  here  also  he  was  entertained  with  royal 
magnificence  for  a  whole  week.  Francis  introduced  to  him 
the  Duchess  of  Estampes,  his  mistress,  saying,  "  Look  here, 
my  brother,  this  fair  lady  advises  me  not  to  allow  you  to 
depart  until  you  have  revoked  the  treaty  of  Madrid."  Startled 
at  first,  but  speedily  regaining  his  composure,  Charles  replied, 
"  If  the  advice  is  good,  it  ought  to  be  acted  upon."  On  the 
following  day  the  Emperor,  as  if  by  chance,  dropped  a 
diamond  ring  of  great  value  into  the  hand-basin  which  the 
duchess  held  for  him.     As  she  offered  to  return  it  to  him,  he 


92  CHARLES    V. 

said,  "  It  is  in  too  fair  hands ;  please  to  keep  it  in  remem- 
brance of  me."  This  completely  won  the  heart  of  the  duchess, 
and  he  safely  reached  the  Low  Countries  by  way  of  Valen- 
ciennes. The  rebellion  in  Ghent  was  soon  quelled  ;  the  city, 
the  place  of  his  birth,  surrendered  on  the  day  which  had 
always  been  a  lucky  one  to  him,  his  birthday,  the  24th  of 
February,  1540.  Charles  secured  its  obedience  by  a  citadel 
which  he  caused  to  be  built  there. 

Francis,  however,  did  not  get  over  the  loss  of  the  Duchy  of 
Milan.  Charles  having  suffered  his  great  loss  on  his  second 
expedition  to  Africa,  he  commenced  the  fourth  war  in  1542. 
Charles  now  conferred  upon  his  son  Philip,  at  that  time  in  his 
sixteenth  year,  the  regency  of  Spain,  and  he  left  that  kingdom 
never  to  see  it  again  as  Emperor  and  King.  He  went,  by 
way  of  Genoa  to  the  Rhine,  to  Germany.  There  he  showed 
himself  kinder  than  ever  to  the  Protestants.  The  new  Elector 
of  Saxony,  John  Frederic  the  Magnanimous,  was  again  made 
to  hope  that  his  son  would  be  married  to  a  daughter  of  the 
King  of  the  Romans  ;  the  upshot  of  all  of  which  was  that  the 
Smalcalde  League  lent  Charles  its  arms  against  France,  the 
Elector  himself  being  entrusted  with  the  chief  command. 
The  flower  of  Charles's  army  consisted  of  30,000  Germans, 
who  took  St.  Dizier,  in  Champagne.  At  Chalons  the  two 
armies  stood  opposite  each  other,  with  only  the  river  Marne 
between  them,  the  Imperialists  being  only  two  days'  march 
from  Paris,  whence  the  inhabitants  were  already  flying  to 
Rouen  and  Orleans.  No  German  army  since  the  time  of  the 
Saxon  Emperors  had  advanced  so  far  into  France.  Under 
these  circumstances  Francis  made  proposals  of  peace.  Charles 
accepted  them ;  and  on  the  24th  of  September,  1544,  peace, 
the  last  which  Charles  negotiated  with  Francis,  was  concluded 
at  Crespy.  France  remained  excluded  from  Italy,  renounced 
her  alliance  with  the  Turks,  and  left  the  German  Protestants 
at  the  mercy  of  the  Emperor.  In  this  way  Charles  had  his 
hands  unfettered  in  Germany. 

The  apparent  kindness  of  Charles  to  the  Protestants  had 
only  been  an  artifice  of  statecraft,  just  as  in  1532,  when  there 
was  danger  from  the  Turks.     The  Smalcalde  League  allowed 


COUNCIL    OF    TRENT  93 

themselves  to  be  outwitted  by  this  poHcy.  The  Emperor  now 
took  in  hand  his  old  plan  of  carrying  out  the  reform  within 
the  CathoHc  Church  itself.  He  compelled  the  Pontiff  actually 
to  open  the  council  which  had  been  so  long  talked  of.  The 
Pope  himself  did  not  care  much  about  it ;  to  use  the  expres- 
sion of  Garcia  de  Loaysa,  given  in  a  letter  to  the  Emperor, 
**  he  only  swallowed  it  like  a  purge."  The  Emperor  ordered 
that  the  Protestants  should  submit  to  the  decrees  of  this 
council ;  but  they  refused  to  acknowledge  a  general  council  at 
which  the  Pope  presided,  who  had  already  condemned  them 
as  heretics,  so  that  no  just  decision  could  be  expected.  What 
they  asked  was  a  just  council  of  the  German  nation,  presided 
over  by  the  Elector  of  Saxony.  Then  the  Emperor  resolved 
upon  striking  the  decisive  blow,  for  which  the  most  favourable 
moment  appeared  now  to  have  arrived.  He  declared  that  "  if 
the  Protestants  refused  to  acknowledge  the  general  council, 
he  would  treat  them  as  refractory  members  of  the  Empire, 
setting  himself,  not  against  their  religion,  but  against  their 
disobedience."  He  also  secured  himself  from  danger  in  the 
East  by  leaving  the  Turks  in  possession  of  the  greater  part  of 
Hungary,  including  Buda,  which  they  had  occupied  since 
1541 ;  paying  them  besides  a  yearly  tribute  of  30,000  ducats 
for  the  smaller  part  of  it,  which  he  was  allowed  to  keep.  This 
sacrifice  he  made  to  he  enabled  to  put  down  the  heretics  in  Germany.  It 
was  the  beginning  of  the  Spanish  policy,  which  was  afterwards  con- 
tinned  by  Ferdinand  II.  and  Leopold  I.  A  Turkish  pasha  resided 
for  more  than  150  years  at  Buda,  like  a  thorn  in  the  side 
of  the  archducal  house  of  Austria.  The  boundary  was  formed 
by  the  river  Gran,  Austrian  Hungary  being  composed  at  that 
time  of  only  a  small  part  of  Upper  Hungary ;  whilst  the 
lower  provinces,  as  also  Sclavonia  and  Croatia,  were  in  the 
power  of  the  Moslems.  Transylvania  was  ruled  by  the  family 
of  the  Zapolyas,  which  became  extinct  in  the  year  1571 ;  and 
afterwards  by  Bathory  and  other  elective  princes.  Charles 
concluded  with  the  Turks,  in  1545,  a  truce  for  five  years, 
after  which  he  leagued  himself  with  the  Pope  for  the  extermi- 
nation of  the  Protestants,  and  caused  Spanish  and  Italian 
troops  to  be  levied — both  of  which  steps  were  in  direct  con- 


94  CHARLES    V. 

tradiction  to  the  •'Capitulation"  which  he  had  sworn  to  at 
his  election. 

In  this  he  was  guided  by  no  religious  motive,  but  merely 
by  reasons  of  policy.  Charles  had  never  brought  himself  to 
believe  that  in  the  Reformation  a  great  and  general  want 
of  the  German  people  was  involved.  He  who  looked  upon 
himself  as  the  master  of  the  world,  and  who  certainly  ruled 
over  peoples  of  the  most  different  nationalities,  was  not  able 
to  place  himself  on  a  German  point  of  view ;  he  was  and 
remained  a  stranger — a  Spanish  king,  not  a  German  emperor. 
The  interests  of  his  foreign  policy  weighed  far  more  with  him 
than  the  care  for  the  home  affairs  of  Germany. 

The  state  of  things  at  Cologne,  however,  was  the  most 
powerful  incentive  for  the  Emperor  to  bring  matters  to  a 
point  by  force  of  arms.  All  the  three  secular  Electors  (of 
Saxony,  the  Palatinate,  and  Brandenburg;  the  Bohemian 
electorate  being  almost  in  abeyance)  were  devoted  to  the  new 
faith ;  their  ranks  were  now  joined  by  one  of  the  spiritual 
electors,  the  venerable  Archbishop  Hermann  of  Cologne,  of 
the  family  of  the  Counts  of  Wied.  He  declared  for  the 
Reformation,  and  began  to  introduce  it  in  his  archbishopric. 
This  made  the  Emperor  apprehensive  for  his  favourite  country, 
the  Netherlands,  where  he  was  just  then  staying,  and  it  was 
this  fear  which  hurried  him  to  a  decision.  Charles  therefore, 
in  February,  1546,  set  out  from  the  Low  Countries  for  the 
Empire,  and  on  the  5th  of  June  opened  the  Diet  at  Ratisbon. 
The  Protestants  had  neither  sent  delegates  to  the  Council  of 
Trent,  which  began  its  sittings  in  the  December  of  the  pre- 
ceding year,  nor  did  they  now  make  their  appearance  at  the 
Diet.  Charles,  without  any  further  delay,  resolved  upon  war 
to  punish  this  twofold  disobedience ;  and  the  Chancellor 
Granvella  began  secretly  to  negotiate  with  Cardinal  Farnese, 
the  papal  legate. 

Charles,  through  this  channel,  intimated  to  the  Pope  that 
he  was  now  resolved  upon  exterminating  the  Lutheran 
heresy.  In  his  public  decrees  and  proclamations,  on  the 
other  hand,  he  took  the  utmost  care  to  represent  his  arma- 
ment as  a  mere  secular  measure  for  the  punishment  of  some 


POPE     PAUL    III.     FARNESE  95 

princes  who,  by  a  breach  of  the  public  peace,  had  set  the 
imperial  authority  at  defiance.  But,  crafty  as  Charles  was, 
he  had  to  deal  with  one  even  craftier  than  himself ;  and  the 
Pope  outwitted  him.  The  Emperor,  after  having  broken  the 
political  ascendency  of  the  Smalcalde  League,  might  still 
have  used  the  cause  of  the  Reformation  as  a  convenient  tool 
for  keeping  the  Pope  in  check.  The  Holy  Father,  to  render 
the  German  princes  for  ever  the  enemies  of  the  Emperor, 
quietly  made  known  in  Germany  the  terms  of  the  agreement 
which  Charles,  in  direct  violation  of  the  "  Capitulation,"  had 
concluded  with  him.  Pope  Paul  III.  Farnese,  the  pontiff  who 
presided  over  the  establishment  of  the  order  of  the  Jesuits, 
followed  the  same  line  of  conduct  as  Cardinal  Richelieu  did 
during  the  Thirty  Years'  War.  Twice  the  German  Emperors 
were  thus  duped  by  their  own  alHes  and  fellow  religionists : 
his  Holiness  the  Pope  and  the  Most  Christian  King,  who 
sowed  enmity  between  them  and  the  Protestants,  to  prevent 
his  Csesarean  Majesty  from  carrying  out  his  plan  of  a 
universal  monarchy. 

The  Protestants  indeed  could  no  longer  have  any  doubts 
as  to  what  he  intended  against  them.  But  it  was  now  too 
late.  Even  before  the  war  began,  Charles  had  conquered 
them  at  Ratisbon  by  political  manoeuvring.  The  net  which 
he  had  spread  for  the  Protestants  now  narrowed  on  all  sides. 
The  Pope  had  promised  an  auxiliary  force  of  12,000  Italian 
infantry  and  4,500  light  cavalry,  whom  his  Holiness  engaged 
to  keep  for  six  months  at  his  own  expense ;  besides  which,  he 
furnished  200,000  crowns  for  the  war,  and  allowed  Charles  to 
appropriate  half  the  revenues  of  the  current  year  from  all  the 
ecclesiastical  property  in  Spain,  and  to  sell  Spanish  conventual 
property  to  the  value  of  50,000  scudi.  Count  Maximilian  of 
Egmont  and  Büren,^  who  commanded  in  the  Low  Countries, 
received  orders  to  bring  up  the  troops  stationed  there.  The 
most  effective  stroke,  however,  which  Charles  dealt  his  foes 
was  his  sowing  division  among  the  Protestants ;  secretly 
coming  to  an  understanding  with  the  Elector  Joachim  II.  of 
Brandenburg  and  Duke  Maurice  of  Saxony,  whom  he  took 

1  Uncle  of  the  celebrated  and  unfortunate  Count  Egmont. 


go  CHARLES     V. 

into  his  own  service,  appointing  him  besides,  on  the  19th 
of  June,  1546,  Protector  of  the  archbishopric  of  Magdeburg 
and  the  bishopric  of  Halberstadt.  He  even  gave  him,  whilst 
still  at  Ratisbon,  the  eventual  promise  of  the  Saxon  electorate 
if  he  would  assist  King  Ferdinand  in  carrying  out  the  ban  of 
the  Empire  against  his  cousin,  the  actual  Elector.  Mocenigo, 
the  Venetian  ambassador,  states  :  "  Granvella  told  me  one 
day  that  he  had  been  the  first  to  advise  this  step ;  at  first  the 
Emperor  and  others  had  laughed  at  it,  as  it  seemed  to  them 
an  affair  of  which  no  result  could  reasonably  have  been 
expected,  considering  that  Maurice  was  an  arch-Lutheran 
(Liitheranissimo),  that  he  revered  the  landgrave  as  a  father, 
and  even  more,  that  he  had  been  reared  by  John  Frederic,  to 
whom,  according  to  many,  he  owed  the  very  possession  of 
his  country.  Yet,  notwithstanding  all  these  considerations, 
Maurice  entered  into  a  treaty  with  the  Emperor  against  his 
religion,  his  father-in-law,  and  his  uncle." 

The  Protestants,  who,  even  at  the  Diet  of  Ratisbon,  had 
not  yet  been  roused  from  their  dreams  of  security,  were  at 
last  frightened  by  the  spreading  reports  of  the  armaments 
of  the  Emperor,  which  foreboded  a  storm  gathering  over 
their  heads.  They  put  the  question  to  him,  what  he  meant 
by  his  warlike  preparations.  Charles  ordered  his  Vice- 
chancellor  Naves  to  answer  them  that  "all  those  who  were 
obedient  to  him  should  find  in  him  a  gracious  and  fatherly 
Emperor ;  those,  however,  who  set  themselves  against  him 
might  expect  that  he  would  make  them  feel  his  imperial 
authority."  Soon  after,  when  the  messenger  had  arrived 
with  the  ratification  of  the  Pope  (24th  of  February,  1546), 
he  sent  word  to  the  members  of  the  Diet  by  his  councillor, 
Dr.  Viglius,  that,  as  in  so  many  Diets  no  propitious  result 
had  been  effected,  they  should  wait  in  patience  for  his  ultimate 
gracious  decision  on  the  point  of  religion. 

On  this  message  the  Protestant  members  quitted  the  Diet 
at  Ratisbon  without  taking  leave.  The  princes  of  Saxony 
and  Hesse,  the  South  German  towns,  and  the  Duke  of 
Würtemberg  began  to  arm ;  and  the  Lutheran  preachers 
exhorted  the  people  from  the  pulpits  to  stake  their  lives  and 


THE     SMALCALDE    WAR  97 

their  property  for  the  defence  of  the  pure  doctrine.  Luther 
was  incessantly  engaged  in  providing  ministers  and  school- 
masters for  his  "  wild,  untutored  German  people,"  as  he  so 
often  calls  it.  From  want  of  preachers  he  sometimes  caused 
journeymen  printers  to  be  ordained,  who  at  least  were  able  to 
read  to  the  people  his  sermons  from  his  Homilies.  Now,  as 
his  life  drew  towards  its  close,  he  often  sighed  at  the  political 
turn  which  the  Reformation  had  taken,  and  owing  to  which 
the  Church  had  fallen  so  completely  into  the  hands  of  the 
princes.  Nor  was  he  any  longer  mistaken  in  Charles  V.  In 
one  of  the  letters  written  by  him  to  the  zealous  Lutheran, 
Baron  Jörger,  of  Herrnals,  in  Austria,  he  says,  "  I  would  fain 
have  seen  that  servant  of  the  devil,  together  with  the  Pope, 
slain."  Charles's  brother  Ferdinand  he  calls  "  the  man  of 
wrath,"  and  compares  him  to  Ahab  and  to  all  the  blood- 
stained tyrants  of  the  Old  Testament. 

6. — The  Smalcalde  war — Battle  of  Mühlberg. 

It  was  five  months  after  Luther's  death  when  the  Smal- 
calde war  broke  out  in  July,  1546. 

The  forces  of  the  South  German  cities  of  Augsburg,  Ulm, 
and  others  took  the  field  first.  They  were  commanded  by  a 
celebrated  and  dreaded  captain,  the  bold  and  determined 
knight  of  the  Empire,  Sebastian  Schärtlin  von  Burtenbach, 
whose  family  castle  lay  within  the  territory  of  the  free  city  of 
Augsburg.  He  had  fought  against  the  Turks  and  the  French, 
had  shared  in  the  battle  of  Pavia,  and  been  present  at  the 
taking  of  Rome.  The  Emperor  Charles  had  in  1534  ennobled 
him  by  a  diploma  dated  at  Toledo,  and  had  in  1546,  at  the 
Diet  of  Ratisbon,  dubbed  him  an  eques  auratus.  He  was 
learned  in  classical  lore,  and  very  well  versed  in  all  the  arts 
of  war.  He  never  was  for  half  measures,  but  always  laid  it 
down  as  the  first  principle  in  war  to  "  annihilate  the  enemy." 
His  plan,  therefore,  was  in  the  present  instance  to  crush  the 
forces  of  the  Emperor  whilst  he  was  still  gathering  them ;  to 
cut  him  off  from  Bavaria  and  Franconia ;  and  to  compel  him 
to  fly  to  Austria. 

VOL.  I  7 


gS  CHARLES    V. 

Charles  had  not  yet  left  Ratisbon,  where  he  had  with  him 
only  8,000  infantry  and  700  horse,  German  troops,  whom 
he  had  in  a  hurry  withdrawn  from  Hungary,  besides  2,000 
Spaniards.  But  he  employed  the  money  which  he  had 
received  from  the  Pope  and  from  Spain  in  causing  levies  to 
be  made  at  Füssen  on  the  Lech,  in  Swabia,  on  the  frontier 
of  Bavaria.  These  battalions  were  just  going  to  join  him  at 
Ratisbon  when  Schärtlin  fell  in  with  them  in  the  evening. 
The  burly  knight,  as  he  tells  us,  intended  to  serenade  them 
next  morning  with  "his  songstresses"  —  his  cannon;  but 
during  the  night  the  -Imperialists  entered  the  territory  of  the 
Duke  of  Bavaria,  which  SchärtHn  had  just  been  enjoined  by  a 
messenger  from  Augsburg  not  to  violate,  as  the  duke  had  not 
yet  declared  war.  Schärtlin,  therefore,  devised  a  dififerent 
plan.  The  papal  auxiliaries,  to  join  the  Emperor  at  Ratisbon, 
had  to  march  through  the  Tyrol,  by  Innsbruck,  and  the  so- 
called  Ehrenberger  Klause,  a  strong  castle  commanding  the 
whole  of  that  mountain  pass.  Thither  Schärtlin  set  out  in 
forced  marches ;  and  after  having,  on  the  i6th  of  June,  taken 
the  Klause,  he  marched  to  Innsbruck,  and  now  wished  to 
give  himself  the  treat  of  surprising  the  Fathers  of  the  Church 
assembled  in  council  at  Trent.  Then  again  a  messenger 
arrived  from  Augsburg,  with  orders  that  Schärtlin  was  not 
to  violate  the  Tyrolese  territory,  as  King  Ferdinand  had  not 
yet  declared  war.  On  this  he  angrily  retired  to  Günzburg,  on 
the  Danube,  near  Ulm,  where  he  was  joined  by  the  army  of 
the  Duke  Ulrich,  of  Würtemberg,  under  the  command  of  the 
brave  general  Hans  von  Heydeck.  He  now  proposed,  as  a 
third  plan,  to  surprise  the  Emperor  at  Ratisbon,  as,  owing  to 
the  reinforcements  of  the  Imperial  army  having  not  yet 
arrived  from  Italy  and  the  Low  Countries,  his  Majesty  had 
not  yet  more  than  18,000  men  with  him.  But  this  proposal 
also  was  rejected,  although  there  was  every  chance  that  the 
Emperor  would  have  had  to  fly,  in  which  case  all  the  south 
of  Germany  was  lost  for  him.  Schärtlin  says  that  Hannibal 
could  not  have  left  Italy  with  a  sadder  heart  than  he  did 
Bavaria. 

In  the  meantime  the  Elector  of  Saxony  and  the  Landgrave 


THE     SMALCALDE     WAR  gg 

of  Hesse  likewise  appeared  in  the  field.  They  had  sent  to  the 
Emperor  a  letter,  dated  4th  of  July,  setting  forth  that  they 
were  not  conscious  of  having  committed  any  act  of  dis- 
obedience ;  but  if  they  were  guilty  of  any  offence,  it  was  only 
fair  that  they  should  be  heard  in  their  own  defence,  and  it 
might  then  easily  be  proved  that  the  Emperor  was  waging 
war  only  at  the  instigation  of  the  Pope,  to  suppress  the 
doctrine  of  the  gospel  and  the  liberties  of  the  German 
Empire.  The  Emperor,  in  reply,  on  the  20th  of  July,  at 
Ratisbon,  put  the  Elector  and  the  Landgrave  under  the  ban 
and  double  ban  of  the  Empire.  Calling  them  rebels,  perjurers, 
and  traitors,  he  charged  them  with  a  plan  of  depriving  him  for 
their  own  benefit  of  his  crown  and  sceptre;  so  that  they  might 
afterwards  subject  everyone  to  their  own  tyranny.  On  the 
ist  of  August  he  issued  mandates  to  the  Duke  Maurice,  to 
his  brother  Augustus,  and  to  the  representative  States  of  his 
country,  to  assist  him  with  all  their  power  in  carrying  out  the 
ban  against  John  Frederic  ;  urging  very  strongly  that  by  this 
means  only  Maurice  would  be  able  to  make  good  his  claims  as 
nearest  agnate,  whereas  otherwise  the  country  of  the  out- 
lawed Elector  would  remain  in  the  possession  of  anyone  who 
might  once  have  succeeded  in  occupying  it. 

In  the  month  of  August  the  Saxo-Hessian  army  united 
near  Donauwerth  with  the  forces  of  the  South  German  free 
cities  and  of  the  Duke  of  Würtemberg,  which,  commanded  by 
Schärtlin  of  Burtenbach,  amounted  now  to  about  50,000  men. 
The  Emperor,  to  meet  the  troops  expected  from  Italy,  and  to 
be  nearer  the  centre  of  Bavaria,  removed  his  camp  from 
Ratisbon  to  Landshut.  We  are  informed  by  the  "  Rela- 
tions "  of  the  Venetian  ambassador  that  Charles,  with  wily 
policy,  had  forbidden  the  Duke  of  Bavaria  (who,  on  the  4th 
of  July,  married  the  daughter  of  his  brother  Ferdinand)  to 
come  to  a  rupture  with  the  Protestants  :  the  Emperor,  whilst 
putting  him  forward  as  mediator,  used  him  as  a  channel  by 
which  he  gathered  information  about  the  movements  of  the 
Smalcalde  alHes  ;  he  also  drew  from  Bavaria  the  supplies  for 
his  army,  and  caused  troops  to  be  levied  in  that  country. 
The  duke,  as  well  as  the  Archbishop  of  Salzburg,  the  duke's 

7—2 


100  CHARLES    V. 

brother,  secretly  supported  him  with  money.  Once  more 
Schartlin  was  for  surprising  the  Emperor  at  Landshut  with 
all  the  combined  forces  of  the  allies. 

People,  again,  could  not  agree ;  not  only  were  the  princes 
jealous  of  the  cities,  but  also  the  Elector  and  the  Landgrave 
fell  out  about  the  command  and  the  operations  to  be  carried 
on.  The  allies,  therefore,  contented  themselves  for  the  present 
with  sending  letters  to  Charles  to  renounce  their  allegiance. 
The  Emperor,  however,  without  accepting  the  messages,  sent 
word  to  the  bearers  by  the  Duke  of  Alba  that,  if  they  dared 
to  come  a  second  time,  they  would  be  hanged  for  their  pains. 
In  this  way  much  precious  time  was  wasted.  Charles  was 
joined  during  the  period  from  the  14th  to  the  i8th  of  August 
by  18,000  men — fresh  troops,  partly  raised  in  Germany,  partly 
Spaniards  and  Neapolitans  from  his  Italian  countries,  and 
partly  the  auxiliaries  promised  by  the  Pope.  These  last  were 
commanded  by  Ottavio  Farnese,  duke  of  Castro,  the  husband 
of  Margaret,  the  illegitimate  daughter  of  Charles. 

With  these  forces  Charles  now  advanced  from  Landshut 
to  Ingolstadt  on  the  Danube,  where  he  arrived  on  the  evening 
of  the  26th  of  August ;  and,  with  the  river  and  the  town  in 
his  rear,  entrenched  himself  under  its  cannon.  Then  at  last 
the  Smalcalde  allies  determined  to  make  their  attack  by  bom- 
barding the  camp  of  the  Emperor,  which  at  first  was  only 
surrounded  by  a  simple  ditch.  And  now  took  place  the  great 
cannonade  of  Ingolstadt,  beginning  on  the  30th  of  August  and 
lasting  for  three  days — a  cannonade  such  as  had  never  been 
heard  of  until  then,  2,000  shots  being  fired  from  100  large 
guns  against  the  imperial  camp.  Yet  its  result,  like  that  of 
the  Prussian  cannonade  of  Valmy,  in  the  French  revolutionary 
war,  was  just  the  opposite  of  what  had  been  intended.  It  only 
raised  the  courage  of  the  imperial  army,  and  the  princes  could 
not  come  to  the  determination  of  fighting  a  battle.  When, 
on  the  ist  of  December,  the  Smalcalde  army  marched  out, 
and  occupied  a  commanding  eminence,  Schartlin,  who  had 
just  before,  with  his  twelve  "Great  Apostles,"  as  he  called  his 
culverins,  driven  back  the  Spanish  arquebusiers  into  the 
imperial  camp,  received  from  all  the  captains  the  assurance 


WAR     IN     SOUTH-WESTERN     GERMANY  lOI 

that  they  would  willingly  lay  down  their  life  for  him  if  he 
would  only  venture  an  assault  against  the  camp.  But  the 
Landgrave  rode  by,  and,  vehemently  opposing  the  movement, 
called  out  that  Schärtlin  should  not  lead  the  troops  astray 
by  his  rashness  and  folly;  he  and  the  Elector  had  more  im- 
portant considerations  to  take — they  had  their  country  and  their 
people  to  lose.  "And  I  have  Biirtenhach  to  lose,''  replied  Schärtlin, 
with  generous  indignation.  The  assault,  which,  as  everybody 
then  said,  would  have  cost  the  Emperor  either  his  liberty  or 
his  life,  was  not  made ;  and  Charles  gained  time  to  complete 
his  camp.  Schärtlin  writes :  **  I  saw  nowhere  any  earnestness 
for  an  honest  war."  Nay,  to  his  great  astonishment,  the 
allies — after  having  sent  off,  on  the  2nd  of  September,  the 
famous  letter  to  "Charles  of  Ghent,  who  calls  himself  the  Roman 
Emperor,"  in  which  they  renounced  their  allegiance  to  him — 
broke  up  their  camp  only  two  days  after,  with  a  view  to  inter- 
cept Count  Maximilian  of  Egmont  and  Büren,  who  brought 
to  the  Emperor  15,000  men  from  the  Netherlands.  Büren, 
however,  having  on  the  21st  of  August  crossed  the  Rhine 
near  Bingen  and  Mayence,  evaded  them ;  and  marching  by 
Frankfort  and  Nuremberg,  reached,  on  the  15th  of  September, 
the  Emperor  near  Ingolstadt,  without  having  encountered  a 
Protestant,  as  the  Saxons  and  Hessians,  seized  by  a  panic  at 
his  approach,  fled  from  their  position  near  Frankfort. 

Charles  had  now  concentrated  the  whole  of  his  power, 
which,  as  well  as  that  of  the  allies,  amounted  to  about  50,000 
men.  The  badge  of  the  imperial  army  was  scarlet,  that  of 
the  Smalcalde  leaguers  yellow. 

The  Emperor  now  was  evidently  the  stronger  of  the  two. 
Terror  and  fright  went  before  his  soldiers,  especially  his 
Spaniards,  for  the  most  part  weather-beaten  veterans,  many 
of  whom  had  fought  with  him  in  Africa,  and  who  knew  no 
fear.  The  generalissimo  of  the  imperial  army  was  the  dreaded 
Duke  of  Alba. 

The  Emperor,  to  show  his  enemies  that  he  was  not  afraid, 
always  encamped  near  them  ;  yet  the  result  proved  that  he 
did  so  without  any  intention  of  fighting  them.  His  object 
was  to  wear  them  out  by  protracting  the  war,  and  he  hoped 


102  CHARLES    V. 

that,  owing  to  their  league  being  composed  of  so  many  and 
such  very  different  constituents,  of  princes,  great  and  small, 
and  burghers  of  the  free  cities,  they  would  disagree  among 
themselves.  He  wished  to  gain  the  victory  without  a  pitched 
battle,  "  as  behoved  an  emperor  who  was  carrying  on  war 
against  his  vassals."  Advancing  from  Ingolstadt,  he  took  in 
succession  the  towns  of  Neuburg,  Donauwerth,  and  Lauingen 
on  the  Danube,  by  which  means  he  made  himself  master  of 
that  river.  Augsburg  being  threatened  likewise,  the  citizens 
recalled  their  general  Schärtlin  for  their  own  special  protec- 
tion. In  the  Smalcalde  army  all  were  disheartened ;  the 
cities — groaning  under  the  burden  of  having  almost  entirely 
to  maintain  the  armies  which  lay  idle  in  the  field — were 
greatly  incensed  against  the  princes.  "  The  Landgrave 
Philip,"  Schärtlin  writes,  "was  considered  before  all  the 
world  as  a  great  traitor  to  the  cause  of  the  gospel  and  of 
the  German  Empire." 

The  letters  also  of  the  Nuremberg  patrician  Imhoff,  pub- 
lished by  Hormayr,  imputed  to  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse  the 
guilt  of  treachery.  The  following  passage  occurs  there  :  "At 
Halle  the  Count  of  Fürstenberg  gave  a  great  banquet,  where 
it  was  said  that  the  war  had  been  commenced  by  the  Land- 
grave with  the  secret  knowledge  and  connivance  of  the  Emperor,  in 
order  that  his  Majesty  might  see  who  would  join  in  it,  and 
also  that  the  free  cities  might  be  made  to  suffer  loss  and 
injury,  and  so  lose  their  power  and  glory.  Thus  all  has  been 
only  a  sham  ßght,  whereby  to  bring  the  cities  and  the  German  nation 
to  harm,  as  is  evident ;  I  therefore  do  but  pity  the  poor  Elector, 
whom  may  God  comfort ! "  The  letter  containing  this  passage 
dates  from  the  time  when  the  Landgrave  received  at  Halle 
his  judgment  from  the  Emperor,  being  written  on  the  2ist  of 
June,  1547. 

The  two  armies  marched  and  countermarched  for  two 
months  in  the  face  of  each  other,  without  any  decisive 
action  being  fought. 

Winter  approached,  white  frosts  and  severe  cold  already 
began,  and  it  rained  nearly  every  day.  Famine,  disease,  and 
mortality  spread,  especially  in  the  army  of  the   Emperor; 


SUCCESS  OF  JOHN  FREDERIC  IO3 

but,  although  greatly  harassed,  he  gave  orders  that  no  one 
should  dare  to  speak  of  winter  quarters.  He  wished  to  show 
the  enemy  that  it  was  his  firm  determination  to  keep  the  field. 
In  the  beginning  of  November  news  arrived  of  the  successful 
progress  which  King  Ferdinand  and  Duke  Maurice  had  made 
in  the  country  of  John  Frederic.  The  Smalcalde  princes  sent 
on  the  13th  of  November  a  letter  to  the  Emperor  suing  for 
peace.  Charles  contented  himself  with  causing  this  epistle  to 
be  read  out  before  the  whole  army,  but  gave  no  answer  to  it; 
only  when,  two  days  after,  another  letter  arrived  he  sent  word 
back  to  the  petitioners  by  the  Margrave  John  of  Brandenburg- 
Cüstrin,  that  he  did  not  know  of  any  way  of  bringing  about 
a  peace  except  that  the  Elector  and  the  Landgrave  should  sur- 
render at  discretion. 

On  receiving  this  answer  the  Smalcalde  princes  left  their 
camp  at  Giengen,  near  the  Danube,  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
Ulm,  and  returned  to  their  several  countries  on  the  22nd  and 
23rd  of  November,  1546.  The  Emperor  set  out  in  pursuit  of 
them  in  the  evening  with  the  whole  army. 

It  was  high  time  for  the  Elector  John  Frederic  to  return  to 
his  country,  whither  20,000  men  followed  him  from  South 
Germany.  Duke  Maurice,  whom,  with  his  own  brother 
Ferdinand,  as  King-Elector  of  Bohemia,  Charles  had  charged 
with  the  execution  of  the  outlawry  against  the  Elector,  had 
seized  the  whole  of  the  Electorate,  with  the  exception  of 
the  fortresses  of  Wittenberg  and  Gotha.  But  when  John 
Frederic  returned  in  December  to  Thuringia  he  easily  re- 
covered possession.  Maurice's  own  country,  Misnia,  with  the 
exception  of  Dresden  and  Leipzig,  was  taken  by  the  Elector, 
and  Maurice  himself  was  obliged  to  fly  to  the  Bohemian 
frontier.  The  Elector  then  occupied  Joachimsthal  in  Bo- 
hemia ;  here  a  deputation  of  the  Protestant  states  of  Bohemia 
appeared  in  the  camp,  and  very  little  was  wanting  to  cause 
an  actual  rebellion  to  break  out  in  the  latter  country 
against  Ferdinand.  Anne  Jagellon,  Ferdinand's  queen, 
having  died  27th  of  January,  1547,  the  Bohemians,  on  the 
15th  of  February,  concluded  at  Prague  a  treaty  for  the 
protection   of  their  constitution  and  their   religious  liberty. 


104  CHARLES    V. 

They  assembled  an  army  and  blocked  up  the  high  roads 
by  barricades  in  order,  as  they  said,  to  protect  the  country 
against  the  invasion  of  the  unchristian  Spanish  and  Italian 
soldiery.  The  cities  of  Magdeburg,  Hamburg,  Bremen, 
Hildesheim,  Brunswick,  Goslar,  Lüneburg,  and  Hanover, 
likewise  sided  with  the  Elector.  In  Lusatia  and  Silesia 
the  sympathies  of  the  people  were  for  him.  At  Rochlitz 
the  Emperor's  general.  Margrave  Albert  of  Brandenburg- 
Culmbach,  whom  Charles  had  sent  to  the  support  of  Maurice, 
was  arrested  and  kept  a  prisoner. 

In  the  meanwhile  the  Emperor  had  brought  the  South 
German  towns  to  submission.  They  scarcely  offered  any 
resistance,  being  completely  overawed  by  the  dread  of 
Charles  and  his  Spaniards.  "  Within  eight  days,"  says 
the  Venetian  ambassador,  Mocenigo,  "  the  affairs  which 
until  then  seemed  to  be  settled  only  by  guns  and  artillery, 
by  blood  and  bloody  fights,  were  altogether  put  in  the  way 
of  negotiation,  and  were  most  admirably  managed  by  Gran- 
vella,  who,  by  the  Emperor's  order,  went  from  Lauingen 
to  Nördlingen  without  the  foreign  ambassadors  being  allowed  to 
follow  him ;  the  Emperor,  to  his  own  greatest  honour  and 
advantage,  concluding  new  compromises  every  day,  and 
Granvella  telling  the  princes  and  towns,  even  if  it  was  not 
true,  that  the  Emperor  was  on  the  point  of  settling  with  this 
and  that  prince  or  town,  and  that  they  who  settled  matters 
first  would  have  much  better  terms  than  any  of  those  who 
were  later."  Thus  Rothenburg,  Dinkelsbühl,  Nördlingen, 
and  Bopfingen  made  their  submission ;  the  powerful  city 
of  Ulm  likewise  sent  its  delegates,  who,  most  humbly  kneel- 
ing before  the  Emperor  in  the  open  field,  even  went  so  far 
as  to  address  him  in  Spanish.  Ulm  had  to  pay  100,000 
guilders ;  Frankfort  paid  80,000 :  Memmingen  50,000,  and 
the  smaller  ones  in  proportion.  In  Augsburg,  the  first  city 
of  Southern  Germany,  the  brave  Schärtlin  made  a  plan  of 
defence.  The  city  had  strong  walls,  200  pieces  of  artillery, 
and  a  numerous  population  of  warlike  citizens;  but  the  rich 
patrician  houses  of  the  town  secretly  negotiated  with  the 
Emperor.  Anton  Fugger,  the  Rothschild  of  the  then  Europe, 
who  wished  at  any  price  to  keep  up  the  connection  with  the 


THE    LEAGUE    DEFEATED  I05 

Spanish  court  and  the  Italian  countries,  went  out  by  stealth 
into  the  camp  of  the  Emperor,  and  brought  back  the  conditions 
that  the  city  was  to  pay  150,000  guilders,  to  receive  a  gar- 
rison of  Spanish  soldiers,  and  to  banish  the  brave  SchärtHn. 
The  stout-hearted  knight  called  the  Augsburgers  "  craven 
cowards,"  and  held  to  his  contract,  according  to  the  terms 
of  which  he  could  not  be  dismissed.  They  then  with  tears 
begged  him  to  go,  and,  as  Charles  demanded  his  being  given 
up,  he  at  last  departed  for  Constance  and  from  thence  went 
into  Switzerland. 

In  all  these  South  German  cities  Charles  put  down  the 
old  guilds,  establishing  the  absolute  rule  of  the  patrician 
houses  which  had  remained  faithful  to  the  Romish  Church. 
The  cities  were  merely  promised  that  they  should  receive 
the  same  religious  rights  as  would  be  granted  to  Duke 
Maurice  and  the  house  of  Brandenburg. 

The  South  German  princes  who  had  taken  part  in  the 
war — Duke  Ulrich  of  Würtemberg  and  Frederic,  the  Elec- 
tor Palatine — likewise  submitted  to  the  victorious  Emperor. 
Duke  Ulrich  was  so  sadly  broken  in  health,  that  at  Ulm  he 
had  to  be  carried  in  a  chair  by  four  men  into  the  presence  of 
the  Emperor,  who,  in  consideration  of  his  enfeebled  state, 
dispensed  him  from  asking  pardon  on  his  knees.  All  his 
councillors,  however,  had  to  kneel  by  his  side ;  and  he  had  to 
pay  300,000  guilders,  to  give  up  three  fortresses,  to  surrender 
all  his  artillery,  and  to  bind  himself  to  assist  the  Emperor  in 
carrying  out  the  outlawry  against  Saxony  and  Hesse.  The 
Elector  Palatine  Frederic  II.,  formerly  the  suitor  of  the 
Emperor's  sister  Eleanora,  had,  at  Halle,  bowed  low  before 
the  gouty  Emperor,  who  was  sitting  in  his  chair,  and  who  at 
once  granted  him  his  pardon,  because,  as  it  was  expressed,  he 
had  brought  not  more  than  900  men  into  the  field,  "  in  virtue 
of  certain  treaties  with  Würtemberg." 

About  that  time  Francis  I.  of  France  wrote  to  his 
ambassador  at  Cassel :  "  It  is  quite  incredible  that  people 
who  are  in  their  senses,  and  have  so  much  power,  should 
rather  sacrifice  their  money  to  become  slaves  than  to  pur- 
chase their  liberty." 

Thus  the   Smalcalde   League    in    South    Germany  was 


lOÖ  CHARLES    V. 

crushed.  Charles  now  intended  to  march  to  Frankfort,  when 
news  came  from  his  brother  Ferdinand  and  from  Maurice  of 
the  success  of  John  Frederic,  on  which  the  Emperor  sud- 
denly resolved  to  set  out  for  Saxony.  On  the  24th  of  March, 
1547,  he  left  Nördlingen,  where  he  had  last  encamped,  for 
Nuremberg,  where  his  army  assembled  next ;  and  from 
thence  he  went  to  Eger,  which  had  been  selected  as  another 
rallying  point  for  his  army.  Having  arrived  there  on  the 
5th  of  April,  he  was  joined  on  the  following  day  by  his 
brother  Ferdinand  and  Duke  Maurice,  who  came  from 
Zwickau.  At  Eger,  Easter  day  was  celebrated,  mass  being 
read  by  the  younger  Granvella,  bishop  of  Arras,  who,  in  the 
absence  of  his  father,  transacted  the  business  of  the  Emperor. 
From  Eger  Charles  then  marched  through  the  Vogtland 
against  the  Elector. 

After  having  defeated  and  taken  prisoner  the  Margrave 
Albert  of  Brandenburg- Culmbach,  near  Rochlitz,  John 
Frederic  had  not  ventured,  in  the  month  of  March,  to  attack 
Maurice  and  Ferdinand  at  Dresden,  although  they  had  there 
only  a  small  force.  Nor  did  he  venture  to  hem  them  in,  and 
to  advance  in  person  to  Bohemia,  "  which,"  as  the  Venetian 
ambassador  Navagiero,  in  a  despatch  of  1547,  says,  "would 
have  made  him  King  of  Bohemia."  The  plan  of  operation 
adopted  by  John  Frederic  was  to  hold  Gotha  and  Wittenberg, 
and  to  take  a  position  in  Magdeburg.  Unfortunately  for  him, 
he  scattered  his  army  to  garrison  the  fortresses,  as  he  was 
relying  on  the  Bohemians.  Another  part  of  his  forces,  under 
William  von  Thumbshirn,  he  had  sent  to  the  Erzgebirge  and 
to  Bohemia,  and  they  had  already  crossed  the  mountains. 
With  the  remainder  of  the  troops  the  Elector  stationed  him- 
self in  Maurice's  country  at  the  Middle  Elbe,  near  Meissen.^ 

The  Emperor  had  17,000  infantry  and  10,000  cavalry ;  the 
Elector,  whose  forces  had  been  weakened  in  the  manner  just 
mentioned,  had  not  more  than  4,000  infantry  and  2,000  or 
3,000  cavalry — only  a  fourth  of  Charles's  army. 

1  Meissen  is  the  German  name  both  of  the  country  and  of  the  town. 
We  have,  for  the  sake  of  clearness,  called  the  country  by  the  usual  trans- 
lated term  of  Misnia,  and  the  town  by  the  untranslated  name  of  Meissen, 


BATTLE    OF    MUHLBERO  IO7 

On  the  13th  of  April  the  Emperor  arrived  in  the  Vogtland. 
After  passing  the  first  night  at  Adorf,  and  the  second  at 
Plauen,  he  proceeded  through  the  territory  of  the  lords  of 
Schönburg,  down  along  the  river  Mulde  to  Colditz  and 
Leisnig.  From  the  camp  near  the  latter  town  he  despatched, 
on  the  22nd  of  April,  an  ambassador  extraordinary  to  Paris 
to  condole  with  his  sister  on  the  death  of  Francis  I.,  her 
husband.  On  the  23rd,  a  Saturday,  Charles  rested  at  a  manor 
called  Zum  Hof,  between  Oschatz  and  Meissen,  on  the  little 
river  Jahna,  and  belonging  to  the  Schleinitz  family.  Here  he 
heard  that  the  Elector  had  broken  up  his  camp  near  Meissen, 
from  whence,  after  having  burned  the  bridge,  he  had  marched 
to  Mühlberg  and  Wittenberg.  The  Elector  refused  to  believe 
that  Charles  was  marching  against  him  ;  he  still  supposed 
him  at  Eger.  There  was  even  a  report  that  Charles  was 
dead  ;  and  Thumbshirn  left  John  Frederic  without  news  from 
Bohemia. 

On  the  very  evening  of  the  23rd  of  April  the  waggons  of 
the  Emperor,  with  the  pontoons,  went  down  the  left  bank  of 
the  Elbe  ;  the  troops  of  the  Elector  marching  almost  by  their 
side  along  the  right  bank.^  Thus  they  went  on  until  they 
arrived  opposite  the  little  town  of  Mühlberg,  where  the 
Elector  halted.  On  the  morning  of  the  following  day,  24th 
of  April,  1547,  a  Sunday  and  St.  George's  day,  the  whole 
imperial  camp  was  astir.  A  thick  fog  covered  the  country. 
The  Emperor,  King  Ferdinand,  Duke  Maurice  and  his  brother 
Augustus,  and  the  Duke  of  Alba  mounted  their  horses.  The 
Emperor  looked  right  stately  in  his  martial  pomp,  riding  an 
Andalusian  charger  decked  with  red  silk  and  gold-fringed 
housings.  He  was  clad  in  a  full  suit  of  glittering  armour, 
with  gilt  helmet  and  cuirass,  and  adorned  with  the  red  gold- 
striped  Burgundian  badge ;  in  his  right  hand  he  held  a  lance. 
He  was  quite  grey  from  the  tortures  of  gout,  which  had  sorely 
harassed  him,  even  when  still  at  Nördlingen ;  his  limbs  were 
as  if  paralysed,  his  face  pale  as  death,  and  his  voice  scarcely 
audible.    The  Protestants  had  for  some  time  considered  him 

1  See  Appendix  B.,  which  contains  a  detailed  account  of  the  forces  of 
the  belligerents  of  the  Smalcalde  war. 


I08  CHARLES     V. 

as  a  dead  man.  "  Like  a  mummy,  like  a  spectre,"  says 
Ranke,  "he  advanced  against  them."  Charles  trembled  every 
time  he  put  on  his  armour,  but  no  sooner  was  it  buckled  on 
than  his  weak,  enfeebled  body  seemed  at  once  braced  up  again 
by  the  most  chivalrous  courage.  Thus  it  happened  once 
more  at  the  battle  of  Mühlberg. 

Duke  Maurice  and  the  Duke  of  Alba  were  the  first  to 
reach  the  right  bank  opposite  Mühlberg.  They  were  in- 
formed by  a  countryman,  who  ferried  them  over,  that  John 
Frederic  was  attending  divine  service  at  the  town  church 
of  Mühlberg;  that  he  had  sent  his  infantry  in  advance  to 
Wittenberg ;  and  that  he  intended,  after  the  service,  to  follow 
with  the  cavalry.  On  the  other  bank  the  Elector's  people 
were  just  about  to  undo  their  bridge  of  boats,  under  the  pro- 
tection of  some  arquebusiers.  Maurice  and  Alba  at  once 
gave  orders  to  some  of  the  Spanish  infantry  of  the  vanguard 
to  swim  across ;  and  the  men,  stripping  themselves  and 
taking  their  swords  between  their  teeth,  gained  the  other  side, 
where  they  seized  the  bridge,  which  the  Elector's  people  had 
in  vain  tried  to  set  on  fire.  Now  some  hussars  also  crossed 
the  river.  The  Elector's  horsemen,  having  already  set  out, 
returned  once  more,  but  their  master,  after  having  heard  the 
sermon  and  taken  his  breakfast,  entered  a  carriage,  as,  with 
his  bulky  frame,  riding  on  horseback  was  too  inconvenient  to 
him.  They  had,  however,  orders  to  follow  him,  as  the  people 
who  had  crossed  the  river  were  still  thought  only  to  be  the 
escort  of  Duke  Maurice,  and  were  therefore  not  much  minded. 

The  Emperor  had  complained  before  of  the  thick  fog 
which  lay  over  the  river  and  over  the  whole  country.  Now, 
about  midday  it  slowly  cleared.  Charles  saw  the  Elbe.  The 
sun  came  forth,  but  it  was  said  to  have  been  the  whole  day 
quite  red,  like  red-hot  iron,  and  the  day  seemed  to  pass  so 
slowly  that  the  people  would  have  it  that  the  sun  stood  still- 
When,  on  a  later  occasion,  Henry  II.  of  France  asked  Alba 
whether  the  story  of  Joshua  had  really  occurred  again  in  this 
battle,  the  duke  replied,  "  Sire,  I  had  too  much  to  do  on  earth 
to  notice  what  was  going  on  in  the  heavens."  Quite  un- 
expectedly the  Emperor  was  informed,  by  a  miller  of  the  name 


BATTLE    OF     MUHLBERG  IO9 

of  Strauch,  of  the  existence  of  a  ford.  The  Elector's  soldiers 
had  carried  away  two  horses  belonging  to  the  miller;  Maurice, 
whose  subject  he  was,  therefore  promised  to  replace  them, 
besides  a  gift  of  a  hundred  crowns  and  of  the  manor  of 
Borschitz,  if  he  would  lead  the  army  over.  The  ford  had 
a  very  firm  footing;  seven  horses  could  cross  abreast,  the 
water  reaching  only  to  the  saddles.  Charles,  without  delay, 
resolved  upon  fording  with  his  cavalry.  "  It  was,"  says 
Mocenigo,  '*  considered  as  a  piece  of  great  courage  by  every- 
one that  the  Emperor  would  thus,  in  his  own  person,  wade 
through  a  rapid  river  300  yards  broad."  Eighteen  Spaniards 
and  hussars  were  the  first  to  venture  through ;  then  the 
princes  and  the  army  followed.  The  lead  was  taken  by 
Duke  Maurice  and  his  brother  and  by  the  Duke  of  Alba ; 
after  them  came  the  Hungarian  cavalry  and  the  other  light 
horse,  in  number  about  4,000,  with  500  arquebusiers,  whom 
the  horsemen  had  taken  up  behind  them  on  their  horses ; 
then  King  Ferdinand ;  and,  last  of  all,  the  Emperor,  the 
miller  leading  his  horse  by  the  bridle.  Thus  they  reached 
the  other  side.  The  Duke  Maurice  now  sent  one  of  his 
officers  with  a  trumpeter  to  the  Elector,  his  cousin,  to 
summon  him  to  surrender  to  the  Emperor.  John  Frederic, 
who  had  not  the  least  notion  that  there  could  be  any  truth 
in  Maurice's  message,  refused  to  comply,  sending  back  the 
answer  that  these  "  were  words  to  amuse  an  invalid  with." 
The  bridge  of  boats  was  now  restored  under  the  eyes  of  the 
Emperor,  and  the  heavy  cavalry,  as  also  the  infantry,  crossed 
the  Elbe  by  it.  In  the  meanwhile  Maurice  and  Alba  pressed 
on  in  pursuit  of  the  retiring  Elector.  The  Hungarian  hussars 
were  then  for  the  first  time  known  in  Middle  Germany  ;  they 
wore  variegated,  pointed  shields,  and  very  long  lances.  They 
and  the  light  Neapolitan  horse  rode  on  for  three  hours  at  a 
gallop,  without  stopping,  before  they  fell  in  with  the  Elector's 
cavalry. 

John  Frederic  had  been  advised  to  advance  alone  with  the 
cavalry  and  artillery  to  Wittenberg,  which  might  be  reached 
by  horsemen  that  very  evening.  But  the  honest,  open-hearted 
lord  said,  "  What  will  then  become  of  my  faithful  infantry  ?" 


no  CHARLES    V. 

He  thus  proceeded  slowly  in  company  with  the  latter.  He  did 
not  think  that  there  was  so  much  danger ;  his  cautious  soul 
could  never  believe  that  a  whole  army  would  wade  through 
the  Elbe.  The  attacks  of  the  imperial  army  now  became 
more  and  more  serious,  and  it  was  several  times  necessary  to 
turn  round  upon  it.  It  soon  became  evident  that  they  would 
have  to  do  not  with  Duke  Maurice  alone  ;  but  people  had  not 
the  least  idea  that  it  could  be  the  whole  host  of  the  Emperor. 

Three  German  miles  from  the  spot,  near  Cossdorf,  where 
the  imperial  troops  had  forded  the  Elbe,  those  of  the  Elector 
were  at  last  obliged  to  halt.  The  attack  became  more  and 
more  perilous.  Now  at  once  the  Elector  felt  weighing  on  his 
heart,  like  a  heavy  burden,  the  thought  of  the  great  responsi- 
bility of  having  risen  against  the  supreme  head  of  the  Empire, 
who  was  set  over  him  by  God.  He  therefore  went  on  his 
knees  in  sight  of  his  army,  raised  his  eyes  and  hands  to 
heaven,  and  prayed,  "  O  Lord,  if  my  undertaking  against 
the  Emperor  be  unjust,  wreak  thy  vengeance  on  me,  and  not 
on  my  people !" 

The  small  army  was  now  placed  in  battle  array  on  the 
outskirts  of  a  wood,  on  the  heath  of  Lochau,  which  is  now 
called  Annaburg  Heath.  The  infantry  was  covered  by  the 
wood,  some  artillery  was  placed  in  the  centre,  and  the  cavalry 
on  both  flanks. 

The  Elector  had  mounted  a  heavy  dark  brown  Frisian 
horse  ;  he  wore  a  suit  of  black  armour  with  white  stripes, 
and  underneath  a  shirt  of  close  mail. 

It  was  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon.  The  vanguard  of 
the  imperial  army  formed  in  close  column  for  a  main  attack ; 
there  were,  besides,  the  horse  of  Duke  Maurice,  the  Nea- 
politan cavalry,  and  the  hussars.  They  rushed  forth  with 
the  war  cries  "Hispania!"  and  "The  Empire!"  and  the 
Elector's  troops  received  them  with  a  volley;  but  the  latter 
in  this  moment  descried  at  some  distance  the  main  body  of 
the  Emperor's  army  in  full  march  against  them,  and  thus 
they  saw  themselves  attacked  on  two  sides  at  the  same  time. 

The  bearing  of  the  Elector  had  not  been  calculated  to 
inspire  the  small  Saxon  army  with  an  heroic  confidence  in 


BATTLE     OF     MUHLBERG  III 

their  leader  and  in  themselves.  When  therefore,  in  the 
moment  of  peril,  he  now  called  upon  them  to  stand  faith- 
fully by  him,  as  he  would  by  them,  it  was  too  late  to  check 
the  confusion  which  became  general  among  the  men,  and 
something  worse  happened.  A  report  by  the  patrician  ImhofF 
of  Nuremberg,  who  was  serving  under  the  Emperor's  standard, 
sets  forth :  "  It  is  very  strange  to  hear  how  the  Elector's 
councillors,  and  the  big  talkers  whom  he  had  about  him,  have 
dealt  with  him.  When  the  battle  began,  the  Elector  called 
out  to  his  people  that  he  would  on  this  day  shed  his  blood  and 
give  his  life  for  them,  and  he  expected  that  they  also  would 
keep  honestly  to  him.  But  when  fighting  commenced  in  good 
earnest,  the  aforesaid  councillors  and  big  talkers,  on  whom  he 
relied,  called  out,  *  Fly  !  fly  1 '  and  even  cut  down  and  stabbed 
his  own  people,  and  broke  the  order  of  his  battle  array.  I 
heard  this  at  Torgau  from  some  of  the  Emperor's  people, 
and  I  also  saw  myself  in  the  field  of  battle  that  everything  had 
been  done  by  treachery."^ 

The  army  was  scattered  in  all  directions,  and  first  of  all, 
in  spite  of  all  the  earnest  exhortations  of  John  Frederic,  the 
cavalry;  the  infantry,  seeing  the  cavalry — the  knights — fly, 
likewise  threw  down  their  guns  and  pikes,  and  sought  safety 
in  flight.  The  knights  escaped ;  but  the  fate  of  the  infantry, 
whom  the  honest  Elector  had  wished  to  preserve  from  harm, 
was  terrible.  Notwithstanding  their  having  thrown  away 
their  arms  and  asked  for  quarter,  they  were  cut  down  to  a 
man,  in  obedience  to  an  express  command  from  Charles. 
Two  thousand  dead  were  left  on  the  field,  and  eight  hundred 
prisoners  were  taken ;  among  them  several  knights,  Count 
Beichlingen,  Count  Gleichen,  and  others,  besides  several 
princes,  as,  for  instance,  Duke  Ernest  of  Brunswick;  and 
last,  not  least,  the  poor  Elector  of  Saxony  himself. 

John  Frederic,  deserted  by  all  his  mounted  companions, 

1  Melanchthon,  who  had  fled  from  Wittenberg,  showed  those  who 
visited  him  at  Zerbst  some  lines  on  the  detestable  treason,  in  which  the 
names  of  Ponikau,  Carlowitz,  and  three  others  were  mentioned.  Hans 
von  Ponikau  was  the  favourite  of  the  Elector  and  his  chamberlain.  The 
privy  councillor  Christopher  von  Carlowitz,  and  the  celebrated  diplomatist 
and  chancellor,  Dr.  Turk,  were  the  principal  advisers  of  Duke  Maurice. 


112  CHARLES     V. 

suddenly  found  himself  quite  alone  in  the  wood,  which  was 
strewed  with  corpses.  Being  surrounded  by  hussars,  he 
made  a  stout  defence.  The  blood  ran  down  his  face,  over 
his  black  and  white  cuirass,  from  a  wound  in  his  left  cheek, 
which  had  been  cleft  by  a  Hungarian.  Yet  he  refused  to 
surrender  to  the  hussars,  and  likewise  to  the  Neapolitan 
horsemen,  who  hemmed  him  in  on  all  sides. 

At  last  Thilo  von  Trotha,  a  gentleman  of  the  household 
of  Duke  Maurice,  rode  up,  and  called  out  to  him  in  German 
to  accept  quarter.  To  this  German,  John  Frederic  surren- 
dered, giving  in  pledge  a  ring,  which  he  wore  underneath 
his  gauntlet.  The  arms  of  the  Saxon  Elector,  his  sword 
and  dagger,  became  the  booty  of  the  Hungarians. 

The  "Magnanimous"  was  deeply  moved;  the  hour  of 
misfortune  had  now  arrived.  At  the  same  moment  a  thunder- 
storm began  to  rage.  Then  John  Frederic,  for  once  a  true 
son  of  his  "Constant"  father,  rallied  and  called  out,  "Yes, 
yes,  thou  Almighty  Lord;  thou  hast  led  me  here,  and  thou 
art  still  living ;  thou  wilt  surely  bring  it  to  pass !  " 

Thilo  von  Trotha  conducted  the  captive  Elector,  under 
an  escort  of  Neapolitan  horse,  to  the  Duke  of  Alba,  the 
generalissimo.  The  latter  immediately  made  his  report  to 
the  Emperor.  Charles  wanted  to  see  his  noble  captive  at 
once.  Three  times  did  the  Duke  of  Alba,  otherwise  so  ready 
to  obey  the  commands  of  his  Emperor,  refuse  to  lead  the 
Elector  into  the  presence  of  his  Majesty,  being  justly  afraid 
lest  his  master,  in  the  first  ebullition  of  his  anger,  would  treat 
the  prisoner  too  harshly.  But  the  Emperor  insisted  upon 
having  his  will ;  he  stopped  on  horseback  on  the  heath  expect- 
ing his  humbled  enemy. 

When  John  Frederic,  still  bleeding  from  his  wound,  first 
descried  "  Charles  of  Ghent,  who  calls  himself  the  Roman 
Emperor,"  as  he  had  styled  him  after  the  great  cannonade  of 
Ingolstadt,  he  heaved  a  deep  sigh,  again  raised  his  eyes  to 
heaven,  and  called  out,  '^  Miserere  mei,  Domine,  nos  siimus  jam 
hie!'' 

The  Emperor  recognised  his  captive  by  his  Frisian  charger, 
the  same  which  John  Frederic,  three  years  before,  had  ridden 


JOHN     FREDERIC    A    PRISONER  II3 

at  the  Diet  of  Spires.  The  Elector,  supported  by  Alba, 
alighted  from  his  horse,  and  was  at  first,  in  the  Spanish 
fashion,  going  to  kneel ;  but,  recollecting  himself,  drew  off  his 
gauntlet,  to  shake  hands  in  the  German  manner,  as  Elector, 
with  the  chief  of  the  Empire. 

Charles  decHned  both  the  humble  homage  and  the  cordial 
greeting.  He  looked  very  stern,  and  turned  aside.  The  Elec- 
tor at  last  broke  the  silence  by  the  usual  style  of  allocution 
which  the  Electors  employed  in  their  official  communications 
to  the  emperors :  "  Most  potent,  most  gracious  Emperor." 

Charles  replied,  "  Ah !  so  am  I  now  your  gracious  Em- 
peror ?    It's  a  long  time  since  you  called  me  so." 

The  Elector  continued,  "I  am  this  day  your  poor  prisoner, 
and  beg  for  princely  treatment  during  my  captivity.  May  it 
please  your  Imperial  Majesty  to  behave  towards  me  as  to  a 
born  prince  as  I  am." 

The  Emperor  angrily  retorted,  "Yes,  just  as  you  have 
deserved ;  I  will  behave  towards  you  as  you  have  behaved 
towards  me.  Take  him  away !  we  know  very  well  how  to 
behave ! " 

The  Emperor's  brother,  Ferdinand,  who,  as  King-Elector 
of  Bohemia,  was  in  fact  neither  more  nor  less  than  the  col- 
league of  the  Elector  of  Saxony,  addressed  him  even  more 
sharply,  "  You  have  wanted  to  expel  and  beggar  me  and  my 
children ;  a  nice  man  you  are  ! " 

John  Frederic  was  now  delivered  over  to  the  Maestro  del 
Campo,  General  Giovanni  Batista  Gastaldo,  Count  of  Platina, 
second  in  command  to  the  Duke  of  Alba;  who  ordered  the 
Spanish  colonel,  Alphonso  Vives,  to  be  in  attendance  on  the 
prisoner,  to  whom  the  other  princely  captive,  Ernest  of  Bruns- 
wick, was  left  as  a  companion.  The  Elector  was  conveyed  in 
his  own  carriage  to  the  village  of  Ausig,  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
imperial  camp.  Spanish  arquebusiers  guarded  the  prisoners ; 
John  Frederic  was,  however,  allowed  to  send  for  some  of  his 
people  from  Wittenberg  as  his  personal  attendants. 

Duke  Maurice  returned  only  late  at  night  from  the  pur- 
suit of  the  enemy's  cavalry,  which  the  bright  moonlight  had 
favoured.     He  had  been  in  the  saddle  for  more  than  twenty 
VOL.   I  8 


114  CHARLES    V. 

hours  on  that  day,  which  it  is  true  was  the  most  important 
one  of  his  short  earthly  career.  Even  then  he  had  well-nigh 
met  with  the  fate  which  afterwards  befell  him  at  Sievershausen. 
An  electoral  trooper  suddenly  turned  his  horse  round,  and  was 
going  to  discharge  his  pistol  at  him,  but  it  missed  fire.  From 
another  trooper  he  was  saved  by  a  knight  of  his  escort,  who 
cut  the  man  down. 

As  a  set-off  to  all  these  dangers,  he  found,  on  his  return, 
his  cousin  a  prisoner;  and  the  electoral  dignity  of  Saxony, 
which  Charles  had  promised  him,  was  now  secured  to  him  by 
the  battle  of  Mühlberg. 

The  imperialists  had  lost  less  than  a  hundred  men  ;  the 
whole  of  the  Saxon  artillery,  the  baggage  of  the  Elector,  his 
carriages,  his  plate,  and  his  papers  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
conquerors. 

7. — Mmivice^s  expedition  against  Charles. 

The  24th  of  April,  1547,  the  day  of  the  battle  of  Mühl- 
berg, of  which  Charles,  with  a  Christianised  version  of  Caesar's 
dictum,  wrote,  "  I  came,  I  saw,  and  God  conquered  " — the 
day  which  had  delivered  into  his  hands  the  chief  of  the 
Protestants,  just  as  the  day  of  Pavia  had  the  King  of  France 
— this  lucky  day  sealed  his  own  ruin. 

Nothing  seemed  any  more  to  stand  in  the  way  of  his 
supremacy  in  Germany,  the  less  so  as  King  Henry  VIII.  of 
England  and  Francis  I.  of  France  had  died  in  the  beginning 
of  that  same  year.  But,  just  as  the  captivity  of  Francis  did 
not  spare  Charles  from  the  necessity  of  three  subsequent  wars 
with  him,  so  John  Frederic's  captivity,  of  more  than  five 
years'  duration,  plunged  the  Emperor  into  the  war  with 
Maurice. 

Maurice  was  even  a  more  crafty  politician  than  Charles 
himself;  and  by  his  policy  Charles  was  worsted.  The  time 
was  fast  approaching  when  statecraft  alone,  and  not  the  laws 
of  morality  and  justice,  ruled  in  the  council  of  princes.  The 
Pope  had  taken  the  lead  in  this  policy,  and  Charles  V., 
following  his  example,  violated  quite  coolly,  on  political 
grounds,  all  the  stipulations  which  he  had  solemnly  sworn 


CHARACTER     OF     MAURICE  II5 

to  on  his  election.  How  could  Maurice  have  scrupled  to 
overthrow  the  grey-headed  chief  who  in  reality  had  only 
used  him  as  his  tool  for  the  ruin  of  the  Smalcalde  League  ? 
who  indeed  had  given  him  as  his  reward  the  electoral  dignity 
of  Saxony,  but  upon  whom  he  by  no  means  looked  as  his 
benefactor,  but  as  a  common  enemy,  when  once  he  had 
clearly  convinced  himself  that  it  was  Charles's  intention,  as 
soon  as  with  the  help  of  some  of  the  princes  he  had  acquired 
the  ascendency,  to  keep  all  of  them  in  the  subjection  of  the 
imperial  sway.  After  the  battle  of  Mühlberg,  Charles,  faithful 
to  his  second  motto,  plus  ultra,  undoubtedly  did  his  utmost  to 
make  Germany  Spanish,  or,  as  Maurice  expressed  it,  "to  lead 
from  the  Empire,  crushed  by  continued  extortions  and  by  the 
burden  of  a  foreign  army,  all  the  water  to  one  mill."  Every- 
thing in  Germany  was  to  have  been  laid  at  the  feet  of  the 
priests  and  of  the  Spaniards.  It  is  certainly  owing  to  Maurice 
alone  that  Germany  was  not  made  Spanish.  On  high  prin- 
ciples of  justice  and  morality  the  conduct  of  Maurice  against 
the  Emperor  certainly  is  never  to  be  justified,  and  still  less  to 
be  approved.  He  did  the  same  thing  against  the  Emperor 
as  his  unfortunate  cousin  had  done,  and  yet  he  retained 
possession  of  the  electoral  dignity,  which  the  latter,  likewise 
his  benefactor,  had  been  made  to  forfeit  for  ever.  His  boldly 
concealed  and  boldly  executed  resistance  has  become  a  blessing 
to  Germany,  inasmuch  as  the  free  Protestantism  of  the  north 
of  the  Empire  was  rendered  possible  by  it  alone.  Had  Charles 
been  victorious  this  Protestant  liberty  and  concomitant  intel- 
lectual development  undoubtedly  would  have  been  altogether 
stifled  in  the  bud,  and  the  whole  of  Germany  would  now  very 
likely  exhibit  the  same  physiognomy  which  stamps  Austria 
and  Bavaria  with  a  mark  of  social  and  intellectual  inferiority. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  unity  of  the  German  Empire,  which 
it  is  true  had  already  been  dissolved  by  the  Reformation,  was 
now  permanently  broken  up  by  Maurice ;  the  schism  of  the 
Church  became  also  the  rending  of  the  State,  and  the  Empire 
henceforth  remained  divided  into  two  camps. 

The  Elector  Maurice  was  the  son  of  Duke  Henry  the 
Pious,  a  brother  of  that  well-known  enemy  of  Luther,  Duke 

8—2 


Il6  CHARLES     V. 

George  of  Saxe  Dresden.  Henry  was  favourably  inclined 
towards  the  cause  of  the  Reformation,  and  for  this  reason, 
George  had  intended  to  make  over  his  country  to  the  house 
of  Austria.  It  was  only  owing  to  the  intercession  of  the 
Elector  John  Frederic  that,  on  the  death  of  George  in  1539, 
his  possessions  went  to  Henry,  and  that,  on  Henry's  death  in 
1541,  all  the  estates  of  the  latter  passed  undivided  to  Maurice. 
The  protection  thus  shown  to  Maurice  gave  John  Frederic  an 
advantage  of  position  which  Maurice  was  made  to  feel. 

Maurice  was  born  on  the  21st  of  March,  1521,  at  Freiberg. 
At  the  time  of  the  battle  of  Mühlberg  he  was  twenty-six 
years  of  age.  He  was  a  powerful  man,  of  great  agility,  and 
his  swarthy  features  bore  the  stamp  of  the  hero.  His  eyes 
were  bright  and  sparkling,  and  his  glance  so  keen  and 
searching,  that  no  one  on  whom  it  suddenly  fell  could 
meet  it.  His  education  was  based  on  strange  elements. 
His  father,  Henry,  whom  his  subjects  called  the  Pious, 
because  they  liked  him  for  his  good-nature,  seems,  with  all 
his  piety,  to  have  been  a  man  of  a  very  pecuHar  stamp.  As 
Freydiger  states,  in  his  "  Secret  History,"  he  had  a  strange 
fancy  for  everything  gaudy,  and  for  cannon.  On  the  latter 
he  liked  to  have  all  sorts  of  hideous  monsters  depicted,  for 
which  Lucas  Cranach  the  painter  had  to  furnish  the  designs. 
He  also  bought  all  the  obscene  pictures  which  he  could 
procure,  to  have  them  copied  on  his  artillery  ;  and,  although 
he  had  never  any  use  for  it,  yet  nothing  gave  him  greater 
pleasure  than  to  hear  that  the  Emperor  Charles  had  spoken 
of  his  cannon.  From  the  court  of  his  father,  Maurice  came 
to  that  of  the  Elector  of  Mayence,  Cardinal  Albert  of  Bran- 
denburg, the  well-known  violent  opponent  of  the  Reformation. 
There  he  saw  all  the  luxury  and  wantonness  of  the  court  of 
an  ecclesiastical  prince.  From  thence  Maurice  was  sent  to 
his  cousin,  the  IMagnanimous  John  Frederic,  where  he  was 
made  acquainted  with  the  religious  monotony  of  a  Protestant 
court  of  that  time.  John  Frederic  had  his  very  weak  points, 
which  the  clever  youth  easily  detected.  Maurice  indeed  soon 
took  a  dislike  to  his  cousin,  whom  he  used  to  call  *•  The  Fat 
Pride." 


Maurice's   youth  117 

At  a  very  early  age,  in  1541,  even  before  he  had  completed 
his  twentieth  year,  Maurice  was  married  to  Agnes,  daughter 
of  the  Landgrave  Philip  of  Hesse ;  and  that  contrary  to  the 
wishes  of  his  father,  who  was  so  unhappy  about  it,  that  it 
was  feared  that  grief  shortened  his  days.  Yet,  notwith- 
standing this  loving  haste,  his  wife  had  afterwards  to 
complain  of  his  caring  much  more  for  hunting  the  wild 
boar  than  for  her  company.  Maurice,  having  succeeded  his 
father,  who  died  seven  months  after  his  son's  wedding,  held 
his  court  at  Dresden. 

Maurice,  like  his  father,  professed  the  Lutheran  faith ; 
but  although  his  cousin  the  Elector,  and  likewise  the  Land- 
grave his  father-in-law,  repeatedly  urged  him  to  do  so,  he  did 
not  enter  the  Smalcalde  League.  He  was  far  from  regarding, 
like  John  Frederic,  the  new  creed  as  a  panacea  for  all  the 
ills  of  the  times,  from  centring  in  its  cause  all  his  activity, 
and  from  assuming  the  part  of  a  champion  of  the  gospel. 
He  refused  to  ally  himself  against  the  Emperor ;  nay,  on  the 
contrary,  the  more  widely  the  allies  separated  from  Charles, 
the  more  closely  he  attached  himself  to  him.  "  He  did  not 
wish,"  as  Melanchthon  writes  to  Camerarius,  "to  be  the 
satellite  of  such  allies ;  "  he  found  his  most  certain  and  imme- 
diate advantage  with  the  Emperor.  He  therefore  caused  his 
trusty  Christopher  von  Carlowitz  to  negotiate  with  Granvella ; 
after  which  he  came  in  person  to  meet  the  Emperor  at  the 
Diet  of  Ratisbon  (May,  1546).  Here  he  entered  the  service 
of  Charles.  The  Emperor,  on  his  part,  not  only  appointed 
him,  on  the  19th  of  June,  "  conservator,  executor,  and  pro- 
tector "  of  the  two  important  bishoprics  of  Magdeburg  and 
Halberstadt,  the  possession  of  which  he  had  long  coveted; 
but  he  also,  on  the  20th  of  June,  by  word  of  mouth — and  four 
months  after,  on  the  27th  of  October,  in  the  camp  at 
Sontheim,  near  Heilbronn,  in  writing — promised  him  the 
Saxon  electorate,  in  the  actual  possession  of  which  he  was 
placed  by  the  battle  of  Mühlberg.  It  did  not  signify  to 
Maurice  that  his  cousin  was  plunged  by  that  battle  into  the 
most  bitter  misery,  nor  that  his  father-in-law  was  drawn  into 
the  same  ruin.     Luther  had  been  risrht  in  the  answer  which 


Il8  CHARLES    V. 

he  gave  to  John  Frederic,  who  once  at  table  asked  him  his 
opinion  of  Maurice.  The  doctor  warned  the  Elector  that 
he  should  take  care,  or  he  might  rear  in  Maurice  **  a  young 
lion." 

From  the  battlefield  of  Mühlberg  Charles  marched  against 
Wittenberg,  the  fortified  capital  of  the  captive  Elector.  On 
the  4th  of  May  the  town  was  invested,  the  Emperor  estab- 
lishing his  camp  at  Pisteritz,  a  village  belonging  to  the 
university,  where  he  remained  for  thirty-four  days.  The 
university  had  dispersed  already  during  the  previous  winter. 
Again,  as  at  Augsburg,  at  the  presentation  of  the  Confession, 
where  Luther  alone  manfully  and  even  heroically  stood  his 
ground,  Melanchthon  was  seized  with  a  panic,  in  which  he 
wandered  from  one  neighbouring  town  to  the  other.  The 
citizens  of  Wittenberg,  on  the  other  hand,  wanted  to  hold  out 
to  the  last  man ;  and  the  Elector  refused  to  order  the  town  to 
surrender,  as  his  Electress,  Sibylla  of  Cleves,  and  his  family 
were  there.  Then  Charles  caused  sentence  to  be  passed  on 
the  unfortunate  Elector,  "that  the  aforesaid  John  Frederic  the 
outlaw,  as  a  well-deserved  punishment  to  himself  and  an 
example  to  others,  should  be  put  to  death  by  the  sword  ;  and 
that  this  sentence  should  be  carried  into  effect  at  the  place  ot 
execution  appointed  on  the  field  for  that  purpose."  The 
Elector  had  been  judged,  not  as  the  Emperor's  sworn 
"Capitulation"  prescribed,  with  the  assent  of  the  German 
princes,  but  simply  by  a  Spanish  court-martial. 

The  Elector,  who,  when  fortune  still  smiled  on  him,  had 
been  so  sorely  deficient  in  energy,  showed  in  adversity  all  the 
heroism  of  the  faith  with  which  his  honest  and  simple  mind 
was  thoroughly  imbued.  The  sentence  of  death  was  read  to 
him  on  the  loth  of  May  while  he  was  playing  at  chess  with 
Duke  Francis  of  Brunswick,  his  fellow  prisoner.  He  quietly 
replied:  "I  cannot  believe  that  the  Emperor  will  thus  deal 
with  me.  But,  if  his  Majesty  has  fully  made  up  his  mind  to 
it,  I  request  to  be  positively  informed,  in  order  that  I  may 
settle  all  that  concerns  my  wife  and  children." 

Charles  kept  the  dread  of  death  for  nine  days  hanging 
over  his    prisoner.      Sastrow   states   that    King   Ferdinand 


VISIT    TO    WITTENBERG  II9 

especially  had  urged  his  brother  to  let  the  sentence  be  carried 
into  effect.     The  Bishop  of  Arras  also  was  for  dealing  with 
the  Elector  of  Saxony  "as  with  Juan  de  Padilla; "  such  was 
the  supercilious  disdain  with  which  these  Spaniards  regarded 
the  princes  of  the  German  Empire.     The  Elector  Joachim  of 
Brandenburg,  and  the  Duke  of  Cleves,  the  brother  of  the 
Electress,  succeeded  in  averting  the  calamity.    On  the  19th  of 
May  the  "  Wittenberg  Capitulation  "  was  concluded.     John 
Frederic  had  to  renounce  for  himself  and  his  issue  all  claims 
to  the  electoral  dignity  of  Saxony,  which  was  transferred  to 
Maurice — from   the  Ernestine   to   the  Albertine  line.      The 
fortresses  of  Wittenberg  and  Gotha  were  surrendered.     The 
ex-elector  himself  was  to  remain  a  prisoner  at  the  Emperor's 
pleasure.     The  Emperor  was  even  to  have  the  power  to  send 
him  to  Spain,  to  be  guarded  there  by  the  Infant  Don  PhiHp. 
For  the  maintenance  of  John  Frederic  and  his  family,  part  of 
Thuringia,  the  cantons  of  Weimar  and  Gotha,  Eisenach  and 
Jena,  with  a  yearly  income  of  50,000  florins,  were  assigned. 
This  part  of  Thuringia  formed  the  nucleus  of  the  territory, 
which  was  afterwards  increased  and  extended  by  the  Ernestine 
line.     There  being  an  article  in  the  "Capitulation"  that  John 
Frederic  should  accept  everything  that  the  council  assembled 
at  Trent,  or  the  Emperor,  in  virtue  of  his  prerogative,  was  to 
order  in  matters  of  religion,  the  Elector  stoutly  refused  to  con- 
sent to  it;  whereupon  Charles  struck  it  out  with  his  own  hand. 
On  the  23rd  of  May,  the  Monday  before  Whitsuntide,  the 
electoral  garrison  marched  out  of  Wittenberg;   after  which, 
agreeably  to  the  wishes  of  the  burghers,  the  town  was  occu- 
pied by  four  troops  of  Germans  under  the  Italian  Madruzzi, 
who  spoke  German,  and  who  showed  himself  very  kind.    The 
unfortunate  Electress  Sybilla,  with  her  children,  came  on  the 
25th  of  May  in  deep  mourning  from  the  town  to  the  camp  of 
the  Emperor,  conducted  by  the  sons  of  the   King  of  the 
Romans.     When  she  knelt  before  the  Emperor  to  entreat  for 
her  husband,   Charles   immediately  raised    her  with    great 
urbanity,  but  refused  her  request  to  be  allowed  to  keep  her 
husband  with  her  in  Saxony.     She  might,  however,  follow 
him  if  she  liked.   He  gave  permission  for  the  Elector  to  spend 


I20  CHARLES    V. 

eight  days  with  his  family  at  Wittenberg  Castle,  and  to 
celebrate  Whitsuntide  with  them.  On  the  following  day  the 
Emperor  himself  went  into  Wittenberg  to  look  at  the  town, 
and  to  return  the  visit  of  the  Electress.  On  the  eve  of  Whit- 
sunday the  Elector  entered  the  town,  according  to  the  before- 
mentioned  letters  of  ImhofF,  "  riveted  to  a  waggon,  under  an 
escort  of  i,ooo  Spanish  arquebusiers,  who  mounted  guard  at 
the  castle  by  day  and  by  night."  As  some  more  Spaniards, 
besides  these  arquebusiers,  wanted  to  enter  the  town,  the 
Wittenbergers,  empowered  to  do  so  by  the  Emperor's 
warrant,  repelled  them  ;  "  whereat,"  says  Dr.  Bugenhagen, 
the  town  pastor,  in  his  "  History  of  the  Things  that 
happened  at  Wittenberg,"  "  several  young  Spaniards  fell 
from  the  walls  into  the  ditches,  and  so  were  soused  like  cats 
to  the  great  laughter  of  the  gentlemen  and  burghers.  The 
Elector  was  brisk  all  through  the  town;  but  in  the  castle-yard 
he  became  pale,  and  the  tears  rolled  down  his  cheeks.  All  the 
ladies  at  the  windows  wept  piteously.  There  were  sitting  with 
him  in  the  waggon,  his  eldest  son,  and  his  brother  Duke 
Ernest  of  Coburg.  The  people  of  the  town  also  were  full 
of  sorrow."  On  the  3rd  of  June  the  deposed  Elector  returned 
to  the  imperial  camp,  and  his  wife  and  children  went  to 
Thuringia,  to  the  new  home  assigned  to  them. 

Charles  was  heard  to  say,  during  his  stay  in  Wittenberg : 
"  Everything  forsooth  is  very  different  in  the  Evangelical 
countries  from  what  we  imagined."  As  he  heard  that  the 
Protestant  service  had  been  put  down  he  exclaimed,  *'  Who 
has  done  that  for  us  ?  We  have  not  changed  anything  in  the 
Upper  (South)  German  countries  in  matters  of  religion,  and 
why  should  we  do  so  here  ?  "  He  went  to  see  the  church  at 
the  castle  when  those  about  him — Alba,  and  the  younger 
Granvella,  Bishop  of  Arras,  are  especially  mentioned — advised 
him  to  have  the  "  arch-heretic  "  Luther  exhumed  and  burnt. 
Charles  replied,  "  Let  him  rest ;  he  has  found  his  Judge  already. 
I  make  war  against  the  living,  not  against  the  dead."  From 
this  we  may  see  that  the  Emperor  no  longer  remembered  his 
alliance  with  the  Pope. 

On  the  4th  of  June  the  Emperor  invested  Maurice,  on  the 


LEAVES  WITTENBERG  FOR  HALLE  121 

great  meadow  near  Blesern,  in  sight  of  the  whole  army,  with 
the  vacant  electorate  of  Saxony ;  two  days  after,  the  imperial 
troops  marched  out  from  Wittenberg  to  make  room  for  those 
of  the  new  Elector.  The  burghers  received  the  new  garrison 
with  manifest  sorrow.  Maurice  rode,  "  quite  angry,  straight- 
way to  the  castle,  without  looking  into  the  face  of  anybody." 
But  when  the  burgomaster  and  town  councillors  afterwards 
came  to  wait  on  him,  he  said  to  them,  "  You  have  been  faithful 
to  my  cousin  your  prince;  I  will  ever  remember  that  in 
kindness." 

Charles  on  the  7th  of  June  left  Wittenberg  for  Halle, 
where  he  arrived  on  the  loth.  The  captive  Elector  accom- 
panied him.  Lucas  Cranach,  the  celebrated  painter  and 
burgomaster  of  Wittenberg,  who,  as  a  young  man  of  twenty- 
three  years,  had  accompanied  Frederic  the  Wise  to  Jerusalem, 
followed  John  Frederic,  his  patron  and  friend,  into  captivity. 
The  Emperor's  march  to  Halle  was  intended  against  the 
second  head  of  the  Smalcalde  League,  the  Landgrave  of 
Hesse,  Maurice's  father-in-law. 

Philip  "  the  Magnanimous  "  had  shown  himself  so  pusil- 
lanimous ever  since  the  departure  of  the  Smalcalde  army  from 
Southern  Germany,  that  he  repeatedly  made  proposals  to  the 
Emperor,  and  even  on  the  6th  of  March,  1547,  offered  to  him 
a  body  of  auxiliary  troops.  The  fear  of  losing  everything — 
which  had  harassed  him  ever  since  his  marriage  with  his 
second  wife  Margaret  von  der  Saal,  in  addition  to,  and  in  the 
lifetime  of  his  first,  Christine  of  Saxe-Dresden ;  and  still 
more  since  his  war  in  Southern  Germany,  when  Schärtlin 
in  plain  words  called  him  a  traitor — now  assailed  him  with 
double  force,  when  he  was  informed  of  the  fate  of  the  Elector 
of  Saxony.  He  negotiated  with  the  Emperor  through  the 
Elector  Maurice  and  the  Elector  Joachim  of  Brandenburg 
— the  former  his  son,  and  the  latter  his  brother-in-law — both 
of  whom  were  still  about  the  person  of  Charles.  Philip  made 
his  submission,  surrendering  at  discretion,  offering  to  beg  the 
Emperor's  pardon  on  his  knees,  to  pay  him  150,000  guilders, 
to  demolish  all  his  fortresses  except  Cassel  and  Ziegenhayn, 
and  to  give  up  his  cannon. 


122  CHARLES    V. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  two  Electors,  on  the  4th  of  June, 
in  a  bond  drawn  up  by  Granvella,  bishop  of  Arras,  guaran- 
teed to  the  Landgrave  that  the  Emperor  would  not  deprive 
him  of  his  country,  nor  inflict  capital  punishment,  nor  even 
condemn  him  to  "some"  imprisonment,  the  German  expres- 
sion being  "  einigem  Gefätigniss."  They  likewise  sent  to  him 
on  the  same  day  their  safeguard.  The  two  mediators  in  this 
bond  pledged  themselves  to  the  Landgrave  with  their  word 
of  honour;  they  even  vowed  that,  if  the  Emperor  would  not 
liberate  him,  they  would  surrender  themselves  as  prisoners  to 
the  sons  of  Philip  at  Cassel. 

Trusting  to  the  Electors,  PhiHp  agreed  to  the  conditions. 
When  Philip's  daughter,  the  wife  of  Maurice,  on  the  7th  of 
June,  fell  on  her  knees  before  the  Emperor  to  entreat  him 
for  her  father's  pardon,  Charles  would  not  give  any  further 
answer  tban  that  *'  Philip  had  to  surrender  at  discretion." 
On  the  following  day  the  latter  arrived  at  Halle,  where  the 
Emperor  was  staying,  and  he  supped  on  that  evening  with 
his  son-in-law  Maurice  and  the  Elector  of  Brandenburg.  On 
the  next  morning  all  the  three  princes  breakfasted  with  Gran- 
vella. Here  they  signed  that  momentous  document ;  but 
the  word  "einigem"  had  been  changed  to  "ewigem";  i.e.^ 
"  some  "  into  "  everlasting  "  (perpetual)  imprisonment. 

In  the  afternoon,  at  four  o'clock,  the  Landgrave  had  to  go 
through  the  ceremony  of  begging  the  Emperor's  pardon. 
At  the  so-called  "  residence "  where  the  Emperor  lodged, 
Charles  was  sitting  on  a  throne  under  a  gilded  canopy,  sur- 
rounded by  his  German,  Spanish,  Italian,  and  Netherlandish 
lords.  Philip,  dressed  in  a  suit  of  black  velvet,  with  a  red 
scarf,  knelt  down,  dejected  and  sad,  on  the  carpet  before  the 
throne;  behind  him  his  faithful  chancellor,  Tileman  von 
Günderode,^  read  out  the  document  by  which  his  master 
made  honourable  amends  to  the  head  of  the  Empire.  As  he 
did  so  with  doleful  tone  and  gesture,  a  smile  flashed  over  the 
features  of  the  Landgrave,  which,  perhaps,  was  but  the  in- 
voluntary protest  of  his  natural  light-heartedness  against  the 

*  Günderode  followed  his  master  to  his  captivity  and  died  there. 


QUIBBLE    ABOUT    "  EWIG  "    AND     "  EINIG  "  I23 

feeling  of  the  humiliating  position  in  which  he  stood.  But 
the  grave  and  solemn  Emperor  threateningly  raised  his  finger 
and  said,  in  his  Brabant  dialect,  "  Wart,  ik  w'öll  Der  laken 
ley !  "     ("  Wait  a  bit,  I'll  teach  you  to  laugh  I  ") 

After  the  vice-chancellor  of  the  Empire,  Dr.  Seid,  had 
read  the  answer  of  the  Emperor,  and  Günderode  politely 
thanked  in  reply,  the  Landgrave  waited  for  a  sign  from  the 
Emperor  to  rise.  But,  the  sign  not  being  given,  PhiHp  rose 
of  his  own  accord,  and  was  going  to  offer  his  hand  to  the 
Emperor ;  "  His  Majesty,  however,  looked  sour,"  and  kept 
back  his  own  ;  instead  of  which  Alba  seized  Philip's  hand, 
and  invited  the  whole  company  to  take  supper  at  his  house. 
During  the  bustle  of  breaking  up,  the  Emperor  gave  the 
verbal  declaration,  which,  however,  passed  unnoticed  in  the 
din,  that  he  would  not  punish  the  Landgrave  with  "perpetual 
imprisonment "  {ewigem  Gefängniss).  Philip  withdrew,  and, 
in  company  with  Maurice  and  the  Elector  of  Brandenburg, 
took  supper  at  the  Duke  of  Alba's,  who  was  quartered  at 
the  castle  called  Moritzburg.  After  supper  the  Landgrave 
sat  down  to  play  at  backgammon  with  one  of  the  Saxon 
councillors,  Franz  Kramer.  It  was  past  ten  o'clock  when  Alba 
at  once  announced  to  Philip  that  he  was  his  prisoner  ;  at  the 
same  time  lOO  Spanish  arquebusiers  entered  the  apartment. 
Alba  arrested  the  Landgrave  in  exactly  the  same  manner  as, 
on  a  later  occasion,  he  did  Counts  Egmont  and  Horn.  The 
two  Electors  who  had  pledged  themselves  for  Philip's  liberty 
were  quite  dumbfounded ;  Joachim  drew  his  sword,  and  was 
going  to  cleave  Alba's  skull,  calling  out  repeatedly,  "  This  is 
the  trick  of  a  knave  I  "  Maurice,  who  was  deeply  distressed, 
remained  with  his  father-in-law  during  the  whole  night.  The 
two  Electors  assured  the  Landgrave  that  on  the  following  day 
they  would  themselves  speak  with  the  Emperor.  This  was 
done,  and  negotiations  went  on  for  three  days  about  the 
matter ;  but  Charles  insisted  upon  it  that  the  Landgrave  had 
surrendered  at  discretion,  and  that,  after  the  apology,  he  had 
only  given  him  the  verbal  promise  that  he  would  not  inflict 
perpetual  (ewiges),  not,  however,  that  he  would  not  condemn 
him,  at   least    to   some   (einiges)   imprisonment.     This   also 


124  CHARLES    V. 

agreed  with  the  tenor  of  the  bond,  which  the  Electors,  without 
looking  closely  at  it,  had  signed  in  the  morning. 

The  Landgravine  Christine  of  Hesse  and  Mary  Queen  of 
Hungary  in  vain  entreated  the  Emperor  on  their  knees  to 
liberate  the  Landgrave.  Charles  abode  by  his  first  resolution, 
and  Maurice  was  not  in  a  position  to  give  any  effective  aid 
for  the  present.  He  was  afraid,  on  the  one  hand,  lest  Charles 
might  fulfil  his  expressed  threat  to  have  the  Landgrave  re- 
moved to  Spain,  and,  on  the  other,  lest  it  might  occur  to 
his  Caesarean  Majesty  to  liberate  likewise  the  Elector  John 
Frederic.  Thus  was  Maurice  fairly  caught  in  a  trap.  Yet, 
although  he  was  obliged  to  bide  his  time,  he  retaliated  in  due 
season  the  trick  which  Charles  had  played  upon  him. 

The  Landgrave,  who  had  often  said  that  he  was  far  more 
afraid  of  captivity  than  of  death,  had  now  to  submit  to  being 
the  Emperor's  captive;  and  his  fate  was  much  worse  than 
the  one  which  he  had  thought  of,  and  which  his  princely 
fellow-prisoner  was  suffering,  who  certainly  was  an  infinitely 
more  noble  character.  John  Frederic  inspired  even  the 
Spaniards  with  respect,  nay,  veneration.  He  also  enjoyed 
the  distinction  of  being  allowed  to  remain  with  Charles  at 
Augsburg  during  the  Diet;  Philip,  on  the  contrary,  was 
treated  very  severely,  and  was  sent  to  Donauwerth.  His 
Spanish  guards  kept  up  a  constant  noise  in  his  quarters  day 
and  night ;  and  the  Landgrave  complained  bitterly  of  their 
visiting  him  at  night  "  to  see  whether  he  had  not  escaped  by 
a  chink  or  a  mouse-hole."  He  was  only  rarely  taken  out  for 
a  drive  in  a  waggon,  "  as  a  lion  in  a  show."  Very  likely  he 
gave  sufficient  vent  to  his  passionate  temper,  and  he  can 
hardly  be  supposed  to  have  gratified  the  Spaniards  by  an 
excess  of  civility  on  his  side. 

Charles  left  .Halle  about  the  end  of  June  to  hold  at 
Augsburg  a  Diet  "for  the  purpose  of  religious  union,  as 
master  and  lord,  and  as  conqueror."  The  journey  was  by 
Naumburg,  where  the  new  Elector  of  Saxony  and  Joachim 
of  Brandenburg  took  leave  of  his  Imperial  Majesty.  Maurice 
several  times  told  Alba  that  the  Diet  would  be  short,  and 
that  things  there  would  be  managed  rather  by  orders  than  by 


THE    "CUIRASSED"    DIET  I25 

deliberation.  He  gave  very  plainly  to  understand  that  he 
considered  this  as  a  matter  of  course ;  for  even  then  he 
already  began  to  play  his  part  of  dissembling.  Charles  went 
by  Bamberg  and  Nuremberg.  The  captured  artillery,  num- 
bering 442  pieces,  was  for  the  present  carried  to  Bamberg,  to 
be  sent  afterwards  as  booty,  and  as  a  substantial  token  of  the 
victory,  partly  to  Spain  and  partly  to  Milan  and  Naples.  At 
Nuremberg,  Charles  received  the  submission  of  the  towns  of 
Hamburg  and  Lübeck.  The  delegates  of  Hamburg,  which, 
in  the  times  of  the  German  Empire,  always  showed  great 
obsequiousness  to  the  house  of  Habsburg,  made  their  sub- 
mission in  the  Spanish  fashion,  on  their  knees.  As  to 
Lübeck,  the  head  of  the  Hanseatic  League,  it  is  only  stated 
that  it  paid  200,000  guilders.  The  captive  princes  were 
generally  led  one  day's  journey  ahead  of  the  Emperor ;  Alba 
and  the  Spanish  infantry  were  with  them.  Charles  reached 
Augsburg  on  the  23rd  of  July,  the  Diet  being  appointed 
for  the  3rd  of  September. 

This  Diet,  held  to  bring  about  a  compromise  of  the  re- 
ligious differences,  was,  as  Sleidanus  says,  "  a  cuirassed 
Diet " ;  the  Spanish  and  German  troops  of  the  Emperor 
being  posted  partly  within  the  city  itself,  and  partly  in  the 
neighbourhood.  Charles,  as  Sastrow  states,  "  was  on  good 
terms  with  his  prisoner  John  Frederic.  The  latter  lived  in 
the  mansion  of  the  Weiser  family,  only  two  houses  from 
the  Emperor's  quarters,  who  again  had  put  up  at  the  hotel 
of  the  Fuggers  in  the  wine  market.  The  Emperor  had 
caused  a  passage  to  be  broken  through  the  walls,  and  a  little 
bridge  to  be  laid  across  the  intervening  lane,  so  that  one 
might  go  from  the  lodgings  of  the  Emperor  into  those  of 
the  Elector.  The  Duke  of  Alba  and  other  great  lords  of 
the  imperial  court  frequently  called  on  him  and  kept  him 
company.  He  had  a  tilt-yard  behind  his  house,  and  was 
at  liberty  to  ride  out  in  the  town,  and  to  the  gardens  of 
the  patricians  and  burghers;  but  his  Spanish  soldiers  es- 
corted him  everywhere.  He  was  also  allowed  to  read  any 
books  that  he  liked." 

It  was  rather  remarkable  that  here  at  Augsburg,  when 


120  CHARLES    V. 

Charles  seemed  to  have  arrived  at  the  acme  of  his  power 
in  Germany,  a  serious  danger  should  have  threatened  him 
from  the  very  people  who  had  been  his  tools  in  gaining  the 
victories  which  had  established  his  supremacy.  The  conduct 
of  the  imperial  army  had  been  outrageous  already  on  the 
march  from  Saxony  to  Swabia,  although  the  Emperor  every 
evening  at  the  halting-places  caused  a  gallows  to  be  erected. 
At  Augsburg  they  broke  out  into  a  mutiny,  their  pay  being 
in  arrear  for  several  months.  It  was  the  German  lansquenets 
under  Madruzzi  who  first  raised  the  standard  of  insubordina- 
tion. Not  only  were  they  exasperated  at  the  captive  princes 
being  entrusted  to  the  guard  of  the  Spaniards,  but  they  said 
that  enough  money  had  been  paid  by  the  conquered  princes  and 
cities,  and  that  the  Duke  of  Alba  gambled  it  away,  &c.  One 
day  they  drew  up,  in  closed  ranks  and  with  standards  flying, 
in  the  wine  market.  A  Spaniard  who  attempted  to  wrest  the 
standard  from  one  of  the  ensigns  was  cleft  asunder  "  like  a 
turnip."  The  Spaniards  now  occupied  all  the  streets  which 
led  to  the  wine  market,  and  John  Frederic  was  taken  to  the 
Emperor's  quarters,  lest  he  might  be  rescued  by  force.  There 
was  great  fear  of  the  city  being  plundered,  especially  among 
the  merchants  and  dealers,  who,  on  account  of  the  Diet,  had 
laid  in  a  great  stock  of  valuable  goods,  silver  and  gold  plate, 
silks,  precious  stones,  and  pearls.  The  inhabitants  assembled 
in  crowds,  or  kept  themselves  within  their  dwelUngs  with 
their  cuirasses  on,  and  armed  with  arquebuses  and  hand- 
matchlocks.  The  Emperor  now  sent  to  the  German  lans- 
quenets to  know  what  they  wanted.  They,  supporting  their 
arquebuses  on  their  left  arm,  and  keeping  with  their  right 
hand  the  slow-matches  near  the  touch -hole,  answered, 
"  Money,  or  blood."  The  Emperor  was  obHged  to  send 
back  word  that  they  might  rest  assured  they  should  be 
paid  on  the  next  day ;  he  besides  granted  them  a  free 
pardon  for  having  presented  themselves  before  him  in  such 
a  way.  On  the  following  morning  they  were  paid  and  dis- 
missed. Some  of  the  ringleaders,  however,  were  arrested 
on  their  way,  and  hanged  at  Augsburg  for  having  cursed 
and  abused  "  Charles  of  Ghent." 

On  the  15th  of  May,  1548,  the  Emperor  communicated 


THE     "  INTERIM  I27 

to  the  Diet  at  Augsburg  his  imperial  decision  in  the  matter 
of  religion.     He   published   the   "Interim,"   an   attempt   at 
compromise  between  the  old  and  the  new  creed.      Of  the 
latter  there  were  admitted  the  marriage  of  the  clergy,  and 
the  Eucharist  under  both  forms  to  the  laity,  but  only  until  the 
council  sJiould  have  decided  on  these  points.     Of  the  ancient  creed, 
the  supremacy  of  the  Pope,  the  mass,  the  seven  sacraments, 
and  saint-worship  remained  as  articles  of  faith.     This  docu- 
ment being  read  out  on  the  15th  of  May  to  the  assembled 
Diet   by   Dr.  Seid,  vice-chancellor  of  the   Empire,  a  short 
deliberation  of  the  Estates  followed,  which,  however,  led  to 
no  result.     The  Elector  of  Mayence  then  rose  to  thank  the 
Emperor  for  his  trouble,  his  diligence,  and  activity,  and  for 
his  ^'love  of  the  fatherland."     As  no  one  ventured  to  raise  any 
objection,  the  Emperor  took  the  assent  of  the  Estates  for 
granted,  and  the  "  Interim  "  of  Augsburg  was  promulgated  as 
a  law  of  the  Empire.     Already  did  the  younger  Granvella 
triumphantly  call  out,  "7;i  this  country  everything  is  possible." 
But   the   Emperor  was   able  to  enforce  his  "  Interim " — of 
which  the  people  said  that  "it  had  the  rogue  behind  it" — 
in  Southern  Germany  only,  where  the  towns  were  garrisoned 
by  his  Spanish  soldiers.      And  yet  400  ministers  emigrated 
from  Augsburg,  Ulm,  Ratisbon,  Nuremberg,  and  Frankfort 
on  the  Maine.     The  North  of  Germany,  on  the  other  hand, 
pronounced  against  it — Magdeburg  especially,  which  received 
all  those  who  fled  on  account  of  their  religion  within  its  walls, 
thus  constituting  itself  the  centre  of  the  Protestant  opposition. 
Of  the  princes  of  Southern  Germany  it  was  only  accepted  by 
the  Elector  Palatine  Frederic  and  Duke  Ulrich  of  Würtem- 
berg,   as   also   by  the   frightened   Landgrave  of  Hesse;   in 
Northern  Germany  by  the  lukewarm  Elector  Joachim  II.  of 
Brandenburg,  led  by  his  court  preacher,  the  bland  and  pliant 
Agricola,  who  had  himself  been  engaged  in  drawing  it  up 
with  two  Papist  divines.      The  captive  Elector  of  Saxony 
stoutly  refused   to  accept  it;   and    Maurice,   now  the  most 
important  of  all  the   German  princes,  lilcewise  pronounced 
against  it,  and  caused  another,  the  so-called  "  Leipzig  In- 
terim," to  be  written  by  his  friend  Melanchthon. 

The  Emperor  was  assailed  on  all  sides  with  protestations 


128  CHARLES    V. 

against  the  "  Interim  " ;  but  the  foremost  in  condemning  it  were 
the  Papists.  "  And  if  Charles  had  pubHshed  the  gospel  itself 
it  would  have  been  inexcusable  in  him,  a  layman,"  was  the 
saying  of  an  eminent  prelate.  Pope  Paul  III.  Farnese,  and 
the  council  assembled  at  Trent,  of  course  opposed  it  just  as 
strenuously.  But  the  Emperor  was  resolved  to  try  how  far 
he  might  intimidate  all  the  princes  and  towns  by  means  of  his 
Spaniards.  To  the  Prince  Palatine  Wolfgang,  of  the  Upper 
(Bavarian)  Palatinate,  he  sent  a  message  that  he  should  soon 
see  a  couple  of  thousand  Spaniards  in  his  country.  To  the 
delegates  of  Frankfort,  who  pleaded  scruples  of  conscience, 
the  imperial  councillor  Hase  replied,  "Your  consciences  are 
like  the  sleeves  of  the  Capuchins,  which  swallow  whole 
monasteries.  The  Emperor  wants  the  "  Interim "  to  be 
maintained,  even  if  it  should  cost  him  a  kingdom.  Only 
learn  the  old  way  again,  or  we  shall  send  you  people  who 
will  teach  it  you.  You  shall  learn  Spanish  before  we  have 
done  with  you." 

Even  before  the  opening  of  this  remarkable  cuirassed  Diet 
Ferdinand  I.  had  sat  in  judgment  on  Bohemia.  This  was 
the  first  day  of  retribution  which  the  house  of  Habsburg  held 
in  this  country.  The  same  was  repeated  afterwards  in  an 
aggravated  form  at  the  outset  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War  by 
the  second  Ferdinand. 

In  July,  1547,  the  first  Ferdinand  held  at  Prague  his 
"  Bloody  Diet."  The  heads  of  the  League  of  Prague  were 
condemned  to  death — in  particular  the  pretender  to  the 
crown,  Caspar  Pflugk  von  Rabenstein,  who,  however,  saved 
himself  by  flight,  and  died  unmolested  at  Magdeburg,  the 
great  asylum  of  the  Protestants.  The  towns  and  cities 
which  had  joined  that  league  lost  their  rights  and  privileges, 
were  subjected  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Crown,  and  had  to 
pay  heavy  fines.  All  the  old  Hussites  of  the  Taborite  party, 
the  so-called  Bohemian  Brethren,  had  to  leave  the  country 
of  Bohemia  for  ever.  They  emigrated  in  three  bodies,  each 
upwards  of  1,000  men,  to  Prussia. 

Ferdinand  now  declared  Bohemia  an  hereditary  and  abso- 
lute kingdom.      The  temper  of  the   Bohemians  was  most 


REVENGE    ON     BOHEMIA  129 

hostile  to  the  Germans,  as  may  be  gathered  from  a  passage  in 
Imhoff's  Letters:  "The  King  cannot  trust  the  Bohemians; 
they  do  not  Hke  the  Germans ;  call  us  dogs,  and  wish  us  no 
good."  But  the  weight  of  the  paramount  power  of  Charles 
kept  down  any  outbreak. 

During  the  two  years  succeeding  the  Diet  of  Augsburg 
Charles  resided  in  the  Netherlands,  whither  the  captive 
princes  followed  him.  The  Elector  was  kept  at  the  imperial 
court  at  Brussels;  the  Landgrave  was  confined  at  Oudenard; 
but  after  the  "  insolence  of  an  attempt  at  flight,"  shortly 
before  Christmas,  1550,  removed  to  Mechhn,  to  a  small 
chamber  in  the  imperial  palace,  not  ten  feet  in  length,  with 
the  windows  nailed  up. 

On  the  26th  of  July,  1550,  Charles,  with  his  son  Philip, 
came  to  hold  another  Diet  at  Augsburg,  at  which  the  Elector 
Maurice  was  charged  with  carrying  out  the  ban  of  the  Empire 
against  Magdeburg,  the  determined  opponent  of  the  "  Interim." 
From  this  Diet  the  Emperor,  in  the  beginning  of  November, 
1 55 1,  set  out  for  Innsbruck,  for  the  avowed  reason  of  enjoying 
there  the  fine  mild  air,  and  to  be  nearer  the  Council  of  Trent. 
The  secret  motive,  however,  for  this  journey,  as  communi- 
cated in  a  letter  of  his  to  his  sister  Mary,  dated  the  7th  of 
March,  1552,  was  his  inability  to  pay  the  German  merce- 
naries at  Augsburg  and  the  Spanish  troops  in  the  duchy  of 
Nuremberg. 

Maurice  commenced  the  siege  of  Magdeburg.  Everyone 
in  Germany  dreaded  lest  the  Emperor  might  be  only  waiting 
for  the  decrees  of  the  council  to  enforce  them  forthwith  in  the 
Empire  as  religious  laws,  just  as  he  had  done  the  "  Interim  " 
of  Augsburg,  and  lest  he  might  for  this  purpose  avail  himself 
of  his  Spanish  soldiery.  All  the  Protestants  were  waiting  in 
anxious  suspense  for  what  was  to  come  next,  and  public 
opinion  freely  accused  Maurice  as  the  principal  cause  of  all 
this  misfortune. 

The    obstinacy   with   which    the    Emperor    refused    the 

liberation  of  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse  had  completely  satisfied 

Maurice  that  force  alone  could  ensure  compliance.     He  had, 

therefore,  long  familiarised  himself  with  the  thought  of  striking 

VOL.  I  9 


130  CHARLES     V. 

a  great  blow  against  Charles,  of  preparing  it  well,  and  of 
executing  it  suddenly  and  with  the  utmost  energy,  in  such  a 
way  that  it  could  not  miscarry.  Everything  now  depended 
on  keeping  the  Emperor  deceived  as  long  as  possible. 

It  may  fairly  be  doubted  whether  Maurice  has  ever  had 
his  equal  in  the  art  of  dissembling.  Even  the  Emperor,  his 
teacher,  had  not  such  complete  control  over  himself.  Charles 
sometimes  spoke  out  very  bluntly.  At  the  Diet  at  Augsburg, 
1530,  he  called  the  princes  of  Saxony  heretics  in  plain  terms. 
As  a  Protestant  prince  (the  son  of  the  Duke  of  Saxony)  was 
about  to  take  a  seat  at  the  imperial  table,  Charles  exclaimed, 
"  Catholic  princes  alone  sit  here  ;  there  is  no  room  here  for 
heretics."  This  story  is  told  with  evident  relish  by  his  own 
father-confessor,  Garcia  de  Loaysa.  At  that  time  Charles 
thought  himself  safe.  But  he  also  uttered  unguarded  speeches 
whilst  he  was  not  yet  prepared,  and  whilst  it  was  still  his  wish 
to  dissemble.  At  the  Diet  of  Ratisbon,  very  shortly  before 
the  beginning  of  the  Smalcalde  war,  he  betrayed  himself  to 
the  Protestants  by  a  smile,  when  they  presented  to  him  a 
memorial  in  which  they  protested  against  the  Council  of 
Trent.  Maurice,  on  the  other  hand,  never  betrayed  himself. 
He  was  as  thoroughly  inscrutable  as  Cromwell  himself.  Not 
a  soul  in  Germany,  not  even  his  most  intimate  confidant, 
Christopher  von  Carlowitz,  had  the  least  idea  of  what  were 
really  his  plans.  For  more  than  two  years  did  he  keep  all 
shut  up  within  himself,  and  the  Emperor,  who  had  once 
deceived  him,  was  now  in  his  turn  deceived  by  him  so 
completely  that  undeniably  it  was  the  greatest  masterpiece 
of  political  dissimulation  that  any  German  prince  has  ever 
perpetrated. 

Anyone  who  had  judged  him  merely  from  his  daily  habits 
of  life  would  have  believed  that  pleasure  and  amusements 
alone  had  charms  for  Maurice.  At  home,  at  his  own  court, 
he  was  almost  constantly  engaged  in  the  pleasures  of  the 
chase;  he  was  fond  of  banquets,  chivalrous  sports,  and  the 
revels  of  the  carnival;  and  likewise  in  foreign  courts  and 
at  the  Diets  he  seemed  only  bent  upon  the  pursuits  of  gaiety, 
and  was  particularly  assiduous  in  paying  his  court  to  beautiful 


DISSIMULATION     OF     MAURICE  I3I 

ladies  and  maidens.  As  to  the  liberation  of  his  father-in-law, 
he  seemed  not  to  have  it  much  at  heart.  Philip  wrote  to  him 
on  the  13th  of  November,  1547,  "  If  your  Highness  were 
as  active  in  my  behalf  as  in  banqueting,  revelling,  and 
gambling,  my  affairs  would  long  ago  have  been  in  a  better 
way."  In  the  following  December  Maurice  drove  to  Munich 
in  a  sledge  to  look  after  the  ladies  there ;  and  this  was  just  on 
the  day  preceding  that  on  which  Charles  had  promised  to 
give  an  answer  concerning  the  Landgrave,  and  although 
Carlowitz  had  made  the  most  energetic  representations  to 
him  about  his  frivolous  conduct. 

No  wonder,  then,  that  the  Emperor  believed  that  those 
had  the  greatest  power  over  Maurice  who  abetted  him  in  his 
pleasures.  But  the  cautious  and  far-sighted  Charles  did  not 
see  through  Maurice,  who  was  even  more  cautious  and  saw 
further  than  he  did.  And  just  as  little  did  the  Venetians, 
those  most  accomplished  masters  of  diplomacy  in  their  day, 
see  through  him.  The  Venetian  ambassador  Navagiero,  in 
his  "Relation"  of  1547,  after  the  battle  of  Mühlberg,  calls 
Maurice  brave  and  valorous,  but  precipitous  (impulsive).  In 
the  same  way  Mocenigo  expressed  himself  in  his  "  Relation  " 
of  1547.  "  Maurice,"  he  writes,  "  has  much  courage,  but,  it 
is  believed,  not  much  judgment ;  besides  which,  he  is  a  very 
flighty  gentleman  {non  di  molto  consiglio,anzi  kggiero)."  "From 
him,"  he  said,  "  Charles  has  Httle  to  fear." 

Yet  it  was  Maurice  who  eventually  brought  about  the  ruin 
of  the  Emperor.  He  was  just  as  circumspect  and  bold  as  he 
was  inscrutable.  After  having  cautiously  prepared  everything 
for  the  execution  of  his  great  plan,  he  fell  upon  Charles  like  a 
thunderbolt.  And  with  true  relish  did  he  enter  upon  the 
enterprise  against  "  this  goat "  Charles,  as  he  once  calls  him 
in  a  confidential  letter  to  Margrave  John  of  Cüstrin,  the 
brother  of  the  Elector  Joachim  II.  of  Brandenburg. 

Long  before  the  great  blow  was  struck  he  had  succeeded 
in  procuring  the  necessary  money.  As  far  back  as  1547  he 
sent  for  the  plate  and  valuables  of  the  chapter  of  Meissen. 
There  were  some  very  rare  and  rich  pieces  among  them  ; 
as,  for  instance,  a  silver  statue  of  St.  Benno,  studded  with 

9—2 


132  CHARLES     V. 

precious  stones,  holding  in  one  hand  a  crosier  and  in  the 
other  a  book,  the  whole  weighing  73  marks ;  a  silver  statue  of 
St.  Donatus,  weighing  52  marks ;  the  head  of  St.  Briccius, 
with  a  gilt  mitre  ;  besides  140  chalices;  altogether  amounting 
in  value  to  150,000  guilders.  No  one  afterwards  knew  what 
had  become  of  all  these  precious  objects.  Maurice  very  likely 
had  secretly  put  them  in  the  melting-pot.  In  addition  to  this, 
he  had  borrowed  considerable  sums  ;  his  brother  Augustus 
had  no  less  than  two  miUion  florins  to  pay  for  him  after  his 
death. 

As  early  as  in  the  summer  of  1550  the  beginnings  of  a 
closer  alliance  of  Maurice  with  France  may  be  traced.  It 
was  with  the  help  of  this  power  that  he  intended  to  humble 
Charles.  In  the  following  November,  after  the  last  Diet  of 
the  Emperor  at  Augsburg,  he  undertook  the  siege  of  Magde- 
burg, with  which  Charles  had  charged  him.  In  February  and 
May  of  the  year  1551  he  had  at  Dresden  and  Torgau  several 
meetings  with  John  of  Brandenburg-Cüstrin,  the  brother  of 
the  Elector,  with  his  own  brother-in-law  William  of  Hesse, 
and  with  John  Albert  of  Mecklenburg.  After  this  Frederic 
von  Reiffenberg  was  sent  as  ambassador  to  France.  About 
the  end  of  September,  1551,  Maurice  met  at  Lochau,  not  far 
from  the  battlefield  of  Mühlberg,  with  the  French  envoy, 
Jean  de  Bresse,  bishop  of  Bayonne,  with  whom  a  definitive 
alliance  with  France  was  concluded  on  the  5th  of  October, 
1 55 1,  at  Friedewalde  in  Hesse.  It  was  looked  upon  as  a 
remarkable  omen  that,  whilst  they  were  settling  the  treaty, 
all  at  once  a  flash  of  lightning  ran  through  the  room  where 
the  delegates  were  sitting. 

On  the  9th  of  November,  1551,  Magdeburg  surrendered 
to  Maurice.  On  the  15th  of  January,  1552,  Henry  II.  of 
France  took  his  oath  at  Chambord  on  the  Friedewalde 
Treaty  with  Maurice  and  the  German  princes.  The  latter 
were  represented  on  this  occasion  by  the  Margrave  Albert 
of  Brandenburg-Culmbach,  who  had  repaired  incognito  thither 
with  Schärtlin.  To  the  French  king  a  prospect  was  held  out 
of  the  imperial  crown  of  Germany ;  and  for  the  present  the 
three  oishoprics  of  Metz,  Toul,  and  Verdun,  "as  not  belonging 


CHARLES    V.     AND     MAURICE  I33 

to  the  German  tongue,"  were  made  over  to  him  ;  he  was  to 
possess  them  as  vicavius  imperii,  as  a  fief  of  the  Empire,  under 
which  title  Arelat  had  before  passed  to  the  French  crown. 

Maurice  did  not  disband  the  army  employed  before  Mag- 
deburg ;  on  the  contrary,  he  increased  it  to  25,000  men.  He 
engaged  officers  who  had  served  in  the  Smalcalde  war  against 
the  Emperor,  as,  for  instance,  the  Würtemberger  Hans  von 
Heydeck.  To  disguise  the  strength  of  his  steadily  increasing 
army,  he  employed  the  stratagem  of  dividing  it  and  making 
the  separate  bodies  frequently  change  their  quarters  at  the 
villages.  The  Emperor  indeed  had  his  spies  in  the  camp  of 
Maurice,  where  Lazarus  Schwendi  stayed  as  imperial  com- 
missioner. Maurice,  however,  deceived  all  of  them.  Charles 
secretly  paid  pensions  to  two  of  the  secretaries  at  the  Saxon 
court.  Maurice  was  quite  aware  of  it ;  but  he  dissembled, 
and  continued  to  call  them  in  at  every  deliberation  of  the 
council,  where  he  took  good  care  always  to  boast  of  his 
fidelity  to  his  Majesty  ;  and  thus  the  corrupt  scribes  unwit- 
tingly sent  to  Charles  nothing  but  false  reports. 

The  Venetians  had  already,  in  1550,  ferreted  out  some- 
thing about  the  alliance  between  Maurice  and  France. 
Towards  the  end  of  1551  the  report  of  its  existence  was 
pretty  general.  Charles  received  at  Innsbruck  warnings  from 
his  ambassador  in  France  and  from  his  brother  Ferdinand, 
who,  in  a  letter  from  Vienna  dated  5th  of  November,  155 1, 
expressed  to  him  his  apprehensions,  and  advised  him  to 
liberate  the  Landgrave  Philip.  Frightened  by  these  reports, 
the  three  spiritual  Electors  wanted  even  to  leave  suddenly  the 
Council  of  Trent.  Charles,  however,  had  no  misgivings ;  he 
could  never  divest  himself  of  his  expressed  conviction  that 
these  "wild  roystering  Germans"  had  no  capacity  for  such 
intrigues.  As  late  as  on  the  28th  of  February,  1552,  he  wrote 
to  the  Elector  Joachim  of  Brandenburg  that  he  "  expected 
from  Maurice  every  obedience." 

Charles  was  not,  however,  as  has  always  been  believed, 
taken  aback  by  Maurice  at  Innsbruck.  He  was  very  well 
aware  of  his  approach,  although  informed  of  it  only  very  late. 
This  is  evident  from  a  letter  of  the  Emperor  to  his  brother. 


134  CHARLES     V. 

dated  4th  of  April,  1552,  which  Buchholz  and  Hormayr  have 
communicated.  Charles  writes,  that  he  knew  that  Maurice 
had  put  off  meeting  Ferdinand  at  Linz,  to  settle  accounts 
wdth  him  (Charles)  for  the  grievances  of  the  German  nation. 
He  had  positive  information  that  Maurice  was  on  his  way  to 
Augsburg.  He  knew  he  must  not  tarry  any  longer  at  Inns- 
bruck, lest  he  might  one  fine  morning  be  seized  in  his  bed.  He 
was  determined  to  set  out  that  very  night  to  Flanders,  where 
he  possessed  the  most  power  to  resist  his  enemy.  He  was 
obliged  to  leave  Germany  because  he  had  no  one  who  would  declare 
for  him,  because  so  many  took  part  against  him,  and  because  he  no 
longer  possessed  any  means  of  raising  money.  He  was  placed  in 
the  alternative  of  either  submitting  to  great  indignity  or 
risking  a  great  danger.  He  would  rather  choose  the  latter, 
because  he  was  then  in  the  hands  of  God,  who  might  help  him. 
If  Maurice  were  apprised  of  his  flight,  and  came  to  Ferdinand 
to  enter  into  negotiations  at  an  advantage,  Ferdinand  should 
show  every  goodwill,  but  iahe  care  not  to  settle  anything  defini- 
tively. 

Maurice  left  Dresden  in  the  month  of  March  for  Thuringia. 
His  army  stood  near  Erfurt  and  Mühlhausen.  On  the  25th 
of  March,  1552,  he  joined  at  Schweinfurt  his  brother-in-law 
William  of  Hesse,  with  whom  was  likewise  the  Bishop  of 
Bayonne,  the  French  envoy.  They  now  marched  in  all  haste 
by  Donauwerth  to  Augsburg.  Here  Maurice  arrived  on  the 
ist  of  April ;  thus  placing  himself,  as  he  expresses  it,  "  before 
the  den  of  the  fox  "  at  Innsbruck. 

Charles  had  until  now  repeatedly  given  the  most  super- 
cilious and  defiant  answers  to  the  applications  about  Philip ; 
"  he  would  have  the  body  of  the  Landgrave  cut  in  two  pieces, 
and  send  one  to  each  of  the  parties  who  wished  to  force  him." 
Notwithstanding  this  high  tone,  he  had  given  directions  to  his 
sister  Mary,  the  regent  of  the  Netherlands,  to  enter  into 
negotiations  with  the  prisoner.  A  very  important  protocol, 
relating  to  one  of  these  transactions,  conducted  by  the  Presi- 
dent Viglius,  is  dated  i8th  of  April,  1552.  The  liberation  of  the 
Landgrave  was  to  procure  for  Charles  the  consent  of  the  two  Electors  of 
Saxony  and  Brandenburg  to  a  great  scheme  which  the  Emperor  was 


HIS     DESPERATE     SITUATION  I35 

then  aiming  at.  He  had  for  this  very  purpose  invited  Maurice 
to  an  interview  at  Innsbruck.  It  seemed,  therefore,  quite 
natural  when  one  of  the  councillors  of  the  latter  made  his 
appearance  at  that  city,  and  quietly  bespoke  quarters  for  his 
master,  who,  he  said,  would  immediately  follow  him.  The 
Privy  Councillor  Carlowitz,  and  the  Chancellor  Mordeisen, 
the  electoral  Lord  High  Steward,  as  also  the  servants,  had 
gone  before  to  Landshut.  Melanchthon  and  other  divines 
were  likewise  on  their  way  to  Trent,  the  Emperor  having 
ordered  them  to  send  delegates  to  the  council ;  everything, 
in  fact,  was  apparently  done  as  the  Emperor  wished  it. 

On  the  27th  of  March,  1552,  Maurice,  in  a  letter  from 
Schweinfurt,  repeated  for  the  last  time  the  request  to  the 
Emperor  to  liberate  his  father-in-law,  as  otherwise  he  himself 
stood  pledged  to  surrender  himself  a  prisoner  to  Philip's 
children.  Charles  privately  sent  to  him  to  Augsburg  his 
chamberlain  and  keeper  of  the  privy  purse,  Hans  Walter 
von  Hirnheim.  The  latter  had  been  present  at  Augsburg 
when  Maurice  took  that  city  on  the  ist  of  April,  and  had 
dined  several  times  with  him.  According  to  what  Charles 
writes  to  his  brother  Ferdinand,  he  sent  Hirnheim  back 
to  Maurice,  in  order  not  to  leave  anything  undone  by  which 
he  might  meet  his  wishes  as  far  as  possible ;  and  he  adds, 
that  he  had  selected  this  messenger  because  Maurice  had 
allowed  himself  to  be  rather  influenced  by  people  who  drank 
with  him  than  by  persons  of  more  judgment.  Hirnheim's 
commission  was  to  this  effect :  to  induce  Maurice  to  go  to 
Ferdinand  and  negotiate  with  him ;  for  which  purpose  Fer- 
dinand had  appointed  to  meet  him  on  the  4th  of  April  at 
Linz. 

The  Emperor's  situation  was  desperate :  he  had  neither 
troops  nor  money ;  his  brother  had  written  to  him  that  he 
wanted  all  his  forces  in  Hungary.  The  spiritual  Electors, 
then  staying  at  Trent,  to  whom  he  had  applied ;  and  likewise 
the  Duke  of  Bavaria,  wrote  evasively,  declaring  that  they 
wished  to  keep  neutral.  The  great  banking-houses  in  Italy 
and  in  the  Netherlands,  and  the  Fuggers  at  Augsburg,  had 
refused  to  accommodate  him,  although  he  offered  the  most 


136  CHARLES    V. 

advantageous  terms.  He  had  lost  all  credit  with  those  who 
had  untü  then  negotiated  his  loans.  He  did  the  worst  thing 
that  can  be  done  with  financial  people  :  he  broke  faith.  Like 
Prince  Metternich  a  few  decades  since,  he  made  loan  after 
loan  in  the  midst  of  peace,  and  then  forced  upon  his  creditors 
the  system  of  permanent  annuities,  converting  the  loan  into 
an  unfunded  debt,  with  perpetual  interest  —  a  proceeding 
which  arrayed  the  whole  moneyed  world  against  him. 

Yet  Charles  lost  his  credit,  not  only  in  the  commercial 
world,  but  in  his  own  family.  That  great  scheme  which  he 
had  hatched  in  his  cabinet  was  neither  more  nor  less  than 
a  combination  by  which  the  imperial  dignity  was  to  be  made 
hereditary  in  his  house.  His  brother  Ferdinand  had  for 
some  time  been  King  elect  of  the  Romans ;  he  was  to  succeed 
to  the  imperial  crown.  Philip,  the  son  of  Charles,  was  to  be 
King  of  the  Romans,  and  so  was  Ferdinand's  son  Maximilian ; 
but  the  latter  only  as  "  second  coadjutor,"  as  Charles 
expressed  it.  Emperor  Charles  was  to  be  succeeded  by 
Emperor  Ferdinand ;  Emperor  Ferdinand  by  Emperor 
Philip ;  and  Emperor  PhiHp  only  by  Emperor  Maximilian, 
Ferdinand's  son.  The  imperial  dignity  was  thus  to  alternate 
in  hereditary  succession  in  both  lines.  In  the  instructions* 
for  the  envoys  who  were  sent  for  this  purpose  to  the  Electors, 
discretionary  power  is  granted  them  to  use  every  means  to 
attain  their  object.  *'  Letiv  offrant"  it  is  said,  in  the  instruc- 
tion to  Councillor  Gienger,  who  was  to  have  gained  over  the 
Electors  of  Saxony  and  Brandenburg,  "  law  offrant  la  vecog- 
noissajice  selon  leur  desir,  fust  en  honneicy,  promocion  ou  proiiffit." 
To  the  Elector  Maurice  a  "  declaration  de  la  prison  perpetuelle  " 
of  his  cousin  John  Frederic  was  promised,  as  the  reward  of 
his  own  consent  and  that  of  the  Elector  of  Brandenburg 
to  the  election  of  Philip  as  King  of  the  Romans ;  besides 
which  the  Landgrave  was  to  be  liberated. 

This  Spanish  project  alarmed  everybody.  The  Emperor's 
own  family  rose  against  him.  The  secret  instruction  of 
Charles  to  J.  de  Rye,  dated  3rd  of  March,  1552,  proves 
that   Charles  suspected  Ferdinand  and   his  son   Maximilian 

'  Published  by  Lanz,  from  the  archives  at  Brussels. 


ATTEMPTS    AT     FLIGHT  I37 

of  siding,  neither  more  nor  less,  with  his  adversaries  against 
him. 

The  wily  monarch  had  been  caught  in  his  own  snare. 
He  was  threatened  with  desertion  on  all  sides.  Ferdinand 
was  well  aware  that,  if  Don  Philip  was  admitted  to  the 
imperial  crown,  he  would  do  his  utmost  to  secure  the  suc- 
cession for  his  own  descendants ;  and  that  the  Vienna  branch 
was  to  be  be  ousted  to  make  room  for  Philip  and  his  line. 

The  real  clue  to  the  mystery  of  this  general  desertion 
is  given  in  the  State  papers  brought  to  light,  which  afford 
undeniable  evidence  that  it  was  the  Pope  who,  to  ward  off 
the  danger  of  a  universal  monarchy  of  the  Emperor,  secretly  abetted 
Maurice  and  his  confederates  against  Charles. 

The  attempted  flight  of  Charles  to  Flanders  failed.  The 
fox  could  not  get  out  of  his  den,  although  he  twice  made  a 
start.  According  to  a  letter  of  the  Emperor  to  his  sister 
Mary,  he  set  out  with  the  most  profound  secrecy,  between 
eleven  and  twelve  in  the  night  of  the  6th  of  April,  notwith- 
standing the  feeble  state  of  his  health  and  the  tortures  of 
gout,  which  scarcely  ever  left  him.  It  was  his  intention  to 
push  on  through  the  mountain  pass  of  Ehrenberg  to  the 
Lake  of  Constance,  and  from  thence  to  go  by  Alsace  and 
Lorraine  to  the  Low  Countries.  He  was  accompanied  only 
by  two  of  his  gentlemen,  his  first  equerry  D'Andelot,  and 
Albert  von  Rosenberg,  besides  his  faithful  barber  Van  der 
Fe,  and  two  servants.  Rosenberg  knew  the  roads.  Van 
der  Fe  with  one  of  the  servants  went  before  to  keep  a 
sharp  look-out,  lest  the  Emperor  should  meet  any  troops 
who  might  recognise  him.  Riding  along  through  the  woods 
and  mountains,  the  party  reached  Nassereit  at  eight  in  the 
morning  of  the  yth  of  April.  Here  the  Emperor  remained 
until  two  in  the  afternoon,  and  then  rode  on  to  Bachelbach, 
one  league  from  the  so-called  Ehrenberger  Klause.  There  he 
put  up  for  the  night,  being  too  tired  to  proceed.  Van  der  Fe 
was  sent  to  Ehrenberg  castle  to  get  information  from  the 
commandant.  This  officer  reported  that  IMaurice  had  already 
set  out  from  Augsburg,  and  was  going  on  that  very  day  (7th 
of  April)  to  occupy  Füssen ;  moreover,  that  the  Saxon  cavalry, 


138  CHARLES    V. 

who  were  foraging  thereabouts,  made  the  road  by  Kempten 
very  unsafe.  On  receiving  this  intelligence,  the  Emperor 
determined  on  returning  to  Innsbruck  with  the  same  profound 
secrecy.     Not  a  soul  knew  anything  of  the  journey. 

A  second  attempt  at  flight  was  likewise  unsuccessful.  He 
disguised  himself  as  an  old  woman,  intending  to  escape  in  a 
carrier's  covered  waggon  by  Ehrwald  to  Hohenschwangau, 
and  from  thence,  through  Würtemberg,  by  Spires  to  the 
Netherlands.  His  companion,  Albert  von  Vestenberg,  was 
ordered  to  answer  to  any  inquiries,  that  he  was  conducting 
an  old  lady  to  the  warm  springs  of  Wildbad  in  the  Black 
Forest.  This  journey  also  was  kept  a  secret;  so  much  so, 
that  the  Emperor's  valet  Dubois  had  to  He  in  his  master's 
bed,  and  in  the  kitchen  the  meals  were  cooked  just  as  if  his 
Majesty  were  present.  Two  short  day  journeys  were  com- 
pleted by  the  newly  built  mountain-road  of  the  Fern.  As 
Charles  alighted  in  the  village  of  Lermos  to  take  some  refresh- 
ment, a  girl  who  had  only  seen  his  portrait  cried  out,  "Oh! 
how  Hke  this  old  lady  is  to  the  Emperor  1 "  Thereupon  his 
Majesty  in  a  fright  returned  home  again. 

In  the  meanwhile  the  negotiations  between  King  Fer- 
dinand and  Maurice  went  on,  contrary  to  the  expectation  of 
the  Emperor,  but  not  to  that  of  Ferdinand,  and  sorely  against 
the  wish  of  his  brother-in-law  William  of  Hesse  and  of  the 
French  ambassador.  Maurice  arrived  on  Easter  Monday  in 
person  at  Linz  to  meet  Ferdinand.  He  was  accompanied  by 
the  Duke  of  Bavaria  and  the  Bishop  of  Passau.  All  of  them 
supped  with  the  King  and  his  children ;  and  after  supper  it 
was  agreed  between  the  King  and  Maurice,  that  the  next 
morning  between  six  and  seven  they  would  begin  to  transact 
business. 

On  the  28th  of  April,  1552,  Ferdinand  and  Maurice  ar- 
ranged that  there  should  be  a  truce,  in  order  that  an  assembly 
might  be  summoned  to  Passau  to  devise  the  means  for  remedy- 
ing the  grievances  of  the  German  nation.  The  truce  was  to 
commence  on  the  26th  of  May,  and  to  last  until  the  8th  of 
June.  Ferdinand  then  set  out  to  join  his  brother  at  Innsbruck, 
where  he  arrived  with  his  children  on  the  7th  of  May.    On  the 


HIS     ESCAPE    FROM    INNSBRUCK  13g 

8th  Maurice  was  again  with  his  confederates  at  the  Upper 
Danube,  where  the  army  was  stationed. 

Charles  had  at  last  succeeded  in  raising  some  money : 
troops  gathered  under  his  banner  near  Frankfort  on  the  Maine, 
and  near  Ulm ;  the  principal  force  mustering  at  Reitti,  near 
the  Ehrenberger  Klause. 

Maurice  had  only  the  intervening  time  from  then  to  the 
beginning  of  the  truce  to  carry  out  his  design.  On  the  i8th 
of  May,  just  eight  days  before  the  beginning  of  the  armistice, 
he  first  took  the  field,  dispersing  the  camp  of  Reitti.  On  the 
following  day,  Ehrenberg  castle  was  taken,  after  a  feeble 
resistance;  and  now  the  way  to  the  Emperor  lay  open. 
Maurice  forthwith  deliberated  with  his  brother-in-law  and  the 
other  allied  princes,  whether  they  should  proceed  "  to  draw 
the  fox  out  of  his  den ; "  and  the  question  was  decided  in  the 
affirmative.  Then  suddenly  an  event  happened  which  brought 
relief  to  the  old  Emperor.  The  infantry  of  Maurice  broke 
out  in  a  very  dangerous  mutiny,  the  regiment  of  ReifFenberg 
claiming  the  usual  gratuity  of  double  pay  for  having  taken 
Ehrenberg  castle  by  storm.  This  riot  caused  a  delay  of 
two  days  and  a  half;  and  things  were  in  such  a  critical 
state,  that  Maurice  had  to  fly  for  his  life  and  conceal  himself. 
By  this  means  Charles  gained  a  respite,  which  enabled  him 
to  leave  Innsbruck ;  on  which  step  he  determined  as  soon  as 
he  had,  on  the  19th  of  May,  received  the  intelligence  of  the 
surrender  of  Ehrenberg  castle. 

On  the  same  day,  in  the  afternoon,  he  summoned  the 
captive  Elector  John  Frederic  of  Saxony,  to  meet  him  in 
the  palace-garden.  According  to  the  State  papers  pub- 
lished by  Lanz,  he  had  received  from  him,  as  early  as  the 
14th  of  May,  a  declaration  in  answer  to  the  question,  "What 
help  and  assistance  may  John  Frederic  expect  from  his 
relations  and  friends,  if  the  transactions  at  Passau  do  not 
lead  to  any  result,  aiid  if  the  Emperor  pronounce  outlawry  against 
Maurice"  John  Frederic  had  sent  an  envoy  to  Passau,  and 
Maurice  had  offered  to  negotiate.  But  the  final  resolution  of 
the  single-minded  old  ex-Elector  was  to  the  effect  that,  if 
the  dispute  between   his  Majesty  and  Duke  Maurice  could 


140  CHARLES     V. 

not  be  settled,  the  Duke  (John  Frederic)  could  not  accept 
from  the  enemies  and  adversaries  of  his  Majesty  any  appoint- 
ment and  so  separate  himself  from  his  said  Majesty.  Charles 
conversed  with  John  Frederic  for  half  an  hour  in  the  summer- 
house  of  the  palace-garden ;  and  of  his  own  accord  offered 
him  his  liberty,  under  the  sole  condition  that  he  should 
voluntarily  for  a  short  time  follow  his  court.  Charles  was 
temporising  again.  After  having  dismissed  John  Frederic, 
he  gave  orders  that  the  most  important  papers  and  jewels 
should  be  placed  in  safety  at  the  strong  castle  of  Rodenegg. 
This  being  arranged,  he  set  out  with  his  brother  Ferdinand, 
at  nine  o'clock  in  the  evening,  with  the  intention  of  passing 
across  the  Brenner,  through  the  Puster  Valley,  to  Carinthia. 

Thus  the  master  of  two  hemispheres  was  obliged,  in  a 
cold  spring  night,  in  a  pouring  rain,  agonised  by  the  tortures 
of  gout,  to  make  a  precipitous  flight.  He  was  carried  in  a 
litter ;  and  his  servants,  bearing  torches,  lighted  him  through 
the  narrow  passes  of  the  Tyrolese  Alps.  All  the  bridges 
were  destroyed  after  he  had  crossed  them;  Spanish  soldiers 
were  also  placed  at  all  the  mountain  passes.  On  the  follow- 
ing morning  the  illustrious  fugitive  reached  Sterzing,  and  at 
nightfall  Brunecken,  a  castle  in  the  Puster  Valley  belonging 
to  the  Cardinal  of  Trent. 

In  the  suite  of  the  Emperor  followed  the  captive  Elector 
with  his  friend  Lucas  Cranach.  For  the  first  time  for  five 
years  the  old  prince  saw  no  Spanish  guard  about  him ;  which 
so  gladdened  his  heart  that  he  began  to  sing  in  the  waggon  a 
hymn  of  praise  and  thanksgiving.  In  Brunecken  he  delivered 
into  the  hands  of  the  Emperor  a  second  declaration,  dated 
23rd  of  May,  and  likewise  referring  to  the  execution  of  out- 
lawry against  Maurice,  and  to  the  war  against  France.  He 
advised  the  Emperor  to  raise  a  German  army  ;  not  to  employ 
any  Spaniards  and  Italians ;  to  seize  Augsburg  ;  and  to  make 
over  the  country  of  Maurice  to  him  and  to  Maurice's  brother 
Augustus.* 

1  This  latter  point  of  the  declaration  is  worded  thus :  "  Touchant  le 
point,  comma  Ton  pourroit  recouvrir  les  pays  du  Due  Mauritz  et  mettre  dis- 
sension entre  les  freres,  qu'il  semble  au  diet  seigneur  due  et  supplie  tres 


SCHEMES    OF     HENRY     II.     OF     FRANCE  I41 

The  Emperor  wished  to  make  people  believe  that  he  in- 
tended to  go  to  Linz ;  but  he  stopped  at  Villach  in  Carinthia 
until  the  end  of  July.  The  magistrates  of  this  town,  in 
reward  of  their  kind  reception  of  the  Emperor,  were  en- 
nobled by  him.  His  brother  went  to  Passau.  On  the  other 
side  of  the  Alps,  the  Council  of  Trent  had  dispersed  in  all 
directions  about  the  end  of  April.  The  partisans  of  the 
Emperor  alone  remained  behind  there,  until  news  of  the 
taking  of  Ehrenberg  castle  by  Maurice  arrived ;  on  which 
the  inhabitants,  as  well  as  the  prelates,  all  fled  to  the 
mountains,  to  the  woods,  and  to  the  lakes. 

On  the  23rd  of  May,  between  one  and  two  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon,  Maurice  made  his  entry  into  Innsbruck,  at  the 
head  of  his  cavalry  and  infantry ;  the  French  envoys  also 
were  with  him.  All  the  personal  property  of  the  Spaniards, 
of  the  Emperor,  and  of  the  Cardinal  Bishop  of  Augsburg, 
Maurice  left  as  booty  to  his  lansquenets,  who  were  then  seen 
strutting  about  in  the  gorgeous  Spanish  dresses,  with  Portu- 
guese gold  coins  glittering  on  their  hats;  they  also  used  to 
enhance  their  new-blown  magnificence  by  calling  each  other 
"Dons."  King  Ferdinand's  property  was  spared.  To  Zasius, 
the  councillor  whom  the  latter  had  left  behind  at  Innsbruck, 
Maurice  excused  his  advance  to  that  place  by  stating  that 
the  French  envoys  had  so  earnestly  urged  it,  that  it  could  not 
have  been  helped  ;  and  that  he  was  sure  to  make  his  appear- 
ance at  the  conference  at  Passau. 

Danger  was  threatening  in  a  different  quarter,  from 
Henry  II.  of  France,  the  ally  of  Maurice.  He  was  moving 
to  and  fro  in  Alsace,  at  the  same  time  issuing  manifestoes,  in 
which,  as  in  those  of  Maurice,  much  was  said  about  German 
liberty.  In  the  French  manifestoes,  dated  Fontainebleau, 
5th  of  February,  1552,  there  was  even  a  cap  of  liberty,  with 
two  daggers,  and  the  word  ^^ Liberias''  emblazoned  on  the  top. 
Yet  the   first   act   by  which   the  "  Liberator  of  Germany " 

humblement  ä  sa  dicte  Majeste  qu'estant  publie  le  ban  et  le  diet  due  prive 
de  son  estat  honneur  et  preeminence,  sa  diet  Majeste  ne  donne  ou  permette 
de  prendre  ses  pays  et  terras  a  aultre  quelconque  que  ä  soy,  ses  freres  et 
enfans,  eomme  aux  vrays  agnats  ....  ioxxies  io\^\e  Due  Augustt  assistera 
ä  ex[ecuter  le]  ban." — Lanz,  State  Papers,  pp.  510 — 518. 


142  CHARLES    V. 

showed  his  goodwill  was  his  laying  hold  on  the  bishoprics 
of  Toul,  Metz,  and  Verdun,  which  until  then  had  always 
belonged  to  the  German  Empire. 

From  Innsbruck  Maurice  started,  on  the  25th  of  May,  to 
Hall  on  the  Inn,  and  thence  went  by  water  to  Passau,  to  be 
present  at  the  assembly  appointed  for  the  26th  of  May,  on 
which  day  the  truce  began.  The  army  retired  from  the  Tyrol 
to  Eichstadt.  The  Emperor  had  left  the  negotiations  to  his 
brother  Ferdinand,  and  they  began  on  the  ist  of  June.  There 
were  present,  besides  Maurice  and  Ferdinand,  the  Duke  of 
Bavaria  and  the  Bishops  of  Passau,  Eichstadt,  and  Salzburg ; 
the  other  electors  and  princes  being  represented  by  their 
delegates.  The  princes,  both  Catholic  and  Protestant,  were 
unanimous  in  the  opinion  that  no  war  should  be  permitted  in 
Germany.  The  negotiations  lasted  for  two  months.  The 
Emperor  was  decidedly  against  admitting  the  French  envoy, 
and  repeatedly  advised  Ferdinand  to  arrest  him.  The  French- 
man left  Passau  on  the  9th  of  June.  As  Charles  refused  to 
ratify  the  articles  which  had  been  agreed  upon,  Ferdinand  had 
to  go  himself  to  Villach  to  his  brother,  where  he  wrested  from 
Charles  his  assent.  This  happened  on  the  6th  of  July ;  on 
the  1 6th  the  treaty  was  signed  in  the  Emperor's  name  at 
Passau. 

At  this  assembly  also  Maurice  behaved  with  extraordinary 
prudence  and  cunning ;  so  much  so  as  even  to  puzzle  his  own 
brother-in-law  William  of  Hesse,  who  in  those  days  wrote  to 
the  Margrave  Albert  of  Culmbach  that  he  received  bad 
news  from  Passau.     Perhaps  the  whole  was  only  a  sham. 

Maurice  had  returned  to  Eichstadt  to  rejoin  his  army, 
with  which  he  marched  towards  the  Rhine.  He  wanted  to 
reduce  Frankfort,  which,  like  Nuremberg,  had  remained 
faithful  to  the  Emperor.  When  he  challenged  the  town  to 
surrender,  he  was  answered  that  he  should  first  become  an 
honest  Christian,  and  lay  aside  his  Judas  appearance.  Here, 
again,  his  brother-in-law  conceived  mistrust,  as  Maurice  held 
a  secret  deliberation  with  the  magistrates  of  Frankfort. 
William,  in  an  altercation  with  him,  called  him  a  traitor.  At 
last,  in  the  camp  at  Rödelheim,  near  Frankfort,  on  the  2nd  of 


JOHN  FREDERIC  SET  FREE  I43 

August,  1552,  he  and  the  Landgrave  William  of  Hesse  signed 
the  treaty  of  Passau — the  treaty  which  again  guaranteed  to 
the  Protestants  their  religious  liberty. 

Peace  being  concluded,  Maurice,  to  support  Ferdinand, 
marched  eastward  against  the  Turks,  and  Charles  westward 
against  the  French ;  whilst  the  liberated  captive  princes  of 
Saxony  and  Hesse  returned  to  their  countries. 

The  Emperor  Charles  V.  repaired,  on  the  ist  of  August, 
from  Villach  to  Innsbruck ;  thence  he  went  to  Hall  and 
Schwetz,  on  the  Inn  ;  then  left  the  Tyrol,  and  went  by 
Munich  to  Augsburg,  which  he  reached  on  the  20th  of 
August.  On  the  ist  of  September,  1552,  he  there  dismissed 
John  Frederic,  not  without  marks  of  regard  and  emotion. 
The  ex-Elector  obtained  no  better  conditions  than  those  of 
the  "  Wittenberg  Capitulation,"  and  at  once  started  for  his 
own  country.  Wherever  he  passed,  he  was  received  by  the 
Protestants  as  a  saint  and  a  martyr.  At  Nuremberg,  the 
delegates  of  the  magistracy  came  out  with  forty  horses  to  meet 
him.  At  Coburg  he  found  his  wife  waiting  for  him.  She  had 
never  cast  off  her  mourning  attire  during  all  the  five  years  of 
their  separation,  and  she  fainted  when  she  saw  her  beloved 
lord  again.  In  every  town  of  Saxony,  the  councilmen  came  to 
meet  him  in  their  black  robes  of  office ;  the  burghers,  either 
clad  in  armour  or  in  their  holiday  suits,  lined  the  roads ;  the 
clergy  waited  in  the  market-places,  with  the  boys  on  one  side, 
and  on  the  other  the  oldest  men  and  the  young  girls,  wearing 
the  Saxon  garland  of  rue^  in  their  flowing  locks ;  the  boys 
singing  the  Te  Deiim  in  Latin,  and  the  girls  responding  with 
the  German  "  Herr  Gott  dich  loben  wir."  The  prince  passed 
along  through  their  ranks  bareheaded,  attributing  his  re- 
turn to  the  effect  of  their  prayers.  In  Jena,  where  his  sons, 
to  make  up  for  the  loss  of  Wittenberg,  had  established  a 
university,  he  was  particularly  pleased  to  see  professors  and 
students  once  more.  By  his  side  on  the  waggon  sat  his  eldest 
son  and  his  faithful  friend  who  had  shared  his  captivity — his 
beloved  Lucas  Cranach. 

The  Landgrave  of  Hesse  returned  from  his  confinement 

1  The  Saxon  coat-of-arms  bears  a  garland  of  rue. 


144  CHARLES     V. 

at  Mechlin  to  Cassel.  He  had  obstinately  refused  to  believe 
in  Maurice's  undertaking  anything  against  the  Emperor,  say- 
ing, "  How  shall  a  sparrow  attack  the  hawk  ?  and,  besides, 
Maurice  has  himself  destroyed  the  other  birds,  whereat 
foreign  nations  cannot  help  laughing."  In  Trevueren,  on 
the  14th  of  September,  1552,  he  took  leave  of  Queen  Mary  of 
Hungary,  the  then  regent  of  the  Netherlands,  and  went 
on  to  Cassel. 

Maurice  was  doomed  not  long  to  survive  his  triumph  over 
the  Emperor.  He  lived  only  one  year  after  the  peace  of 
Passau.  On  his  return  from  the  Turkish  war  in  Hungary, 
he  held,  in  the  carnival  of  1553,  a  great  tournament  at 
Dresden  ;  after  which  he  took  the  field  once  more  against 
his  former  friend  and  ally,  the  wild  Margrave  Albert  of  Bran- 
denburg-Culmbach.  This  princely  freebooter  had  been  pleased 
to  continue  the  war  on  his  own  account,  thus  keeping  up  the 
old  state  of  club  law  in  Germany.  No  wonder  that  he  was 
universally  dreaded.  He  maintained  that  the  treaty  of 
Passau  was  good  for  nothing,  and  that  "  the  parsons  were  to 
be  thoroughly  humbled."  By  the  way,  he  also  was  always 
ready  to  pluck  the  "  pepper  bags,"  as  he  called  the  merchants 
of  the  cities.  Having  about  him  a  few  thousand  cut-throats, 
he  marched  through  Middle  Germany  to  devastate  the  Fran- 
conian  and  Saxon  bishoprics,  all  "in  the  name  of  the  gospel." 
After  this  he  turned  against  the  King  of  France.  And  now 
the  clever  Charles  did  one  of  the  most  foolish  things  he  had 
ever  done  in  his  life.  Near  Metz,  which  the  imperial  troops 
at  that  time  Vv'ere  besieging,  he  caused  Alba  and  Granvella 
to  conclude  with  the  wild  Margrave  the  unhallowed  compact, 
by  which  he  took  him  into  his  service.  From  that  time  the 
authority  of  Charles  in  Germany  completely  declined.  The 
Imperial  Chamber  pronounced  outlawry  against  Albert,  and 
the  princes  bound  themselves,  without  the  Emperor,  to  de- 
fend the  peace  of  the  country  against  its  disturber,  publicly 
protected  and  abetted  as  he  was  by  the  head  of  the  Empire. 

Near  Sievershausen,  on  the  Lüneberg  heath,  where 
Albert  was  just  engaged  in  plundering,  the  Elector  of  Saxony 
fell   in  with   him.      In  this   encounter   Maurice  fell   fatally 


DEATH    OF     MAURICE  I45 

wounded.  Proudly  seated  on  his  charger,  his  breast  crossed 
by  his  red  scarf  striped  with  white,  his  colours,  he  had 
chivalrously  rushed  to  the  combat,  when  a  silver  ball  hit  him 
through  the  cuirass  in  the  back,  and  passed  right  through  the 
body.  William  von  Grumbach,  a  Franconian  knight,  who 
afterwards  was  quartered,  in  1567,  for  other  delinquencies,  is 
said  to  have  been  his  murderer.  The  wounded  Maurice,  in  a 
tent  which  they  pitched  for  him  by  the  side  of  a  hedge, 
received  the  captured  standards,  and  also  the  papers  of  the 
Margrave,  which  he  examined  with  eager  curiosity.  He 
likewise  then  and  there  caused  Christopher  von  Carlowitz  to 
draw  up  his  will,  which  was  sent  to  his  brother  Augustus,  at 
that  time  on  a  visit  to  his  father-in-law  in  Denmark.  Two 
days  after,  Maurice  died,  nth  July,  1553.  His  last  words 
were,  "God  will  come";  the  rest  was  unintelligible.  Maurice 
had  only  reached  his  thirty-second  year.  He  was  buried  in 
the  cathedral  of  Freiberg,  in  the  Erzgebirge,  where  his  monu- 
ment may  be  seen  to  this  day.  He  left  but  one  child,  Anna, 
who  was  married  in  1561,  at  Leipzig,  to  Prince  William  of 
Orange,  the  liberator  of  the  Netherlands.  His  brother 
Augustus  succeeded  him  as  Elector  of  Saxony.  Charles  V. 
loved  Maurice  so  dearly  that,  on  receiving  the  news  of  his 
death,  at  Brussels,  he  mourned  for  him  in  the  words  of  David 
over  his  son,  "  O  Absalom  !  my  son !  my  son !  Would  to 
God  I  had  died  for  thee  1  "  But  his  chancellor,  Granvella, 
rejoiced,  being  of  the  same  opinion  as  Antony  Fugger,  who 
was  thoroughly  versed  in  the  ways  of  the  world,  and  who  said 
to  him  at  Augsburg,  "  that  Maurice  was  well  out  of  the  way, 
and  that  his  death  had  profited  no  one  more  than  his  Imperial 
Majesty,  whom  he  had  tried  to  deceive  and  rob  of  his  sceptre 
to  intrude  himself  into  his  place.  It  had  been  the  plan  of 
Maurice  to  make  himself  king  of  Saxony,  and  after  the  defeat 
of  the  Margrave  to  attack  his  Majesty  in  the  Netherlands, 
in  conjunction  with  France."  Charles  expressly  writes  to 
J.  de  Rye  and  to  his  brother  Ferdinand  that  he  had  heard 
of  this. 

The  state  of  the  times  was  still  very  critical.     In  a  letter 
of  Henry  of  Brunswick — who  at  Sievershausen  had  lost  his 
VOL.  I  10 


146  CHARLES     V. 

two  eldest  sons — to  Philip  of  Hesse,  the  following  passage 
occurs  :  "  As  soon  as  the  Emperor's  affairs  are  in  a  better 
train,  Germany  will  be  in  great  danger.  The  Empevov  only 
wants  to  set  the  princes  against  each  other.  It  is  true  he  used 
Albert  as  one  of  his  hounds  for  the  purpose ;  but  he  would  be 
greatly  pleased  if  a  wheel  went  over  his  leg.''  King  Ferdinand, 
the  Elector  Augustus  of  Saxony,  and  other  princes,  having  at 
last  concluded  at  Eger  a  league  against  Albert  of  Branden- 
burg, Charles,  frightened  by  the  general  commotion  in 
Germany,  was  obliged,  on  the  i8th  of  May,  1554,  to  confirm 
the  outlawry.  The  wild  Margrave  had  now  to  fly  to  France, 
but  returned  afterwards  to  Germany.  He  died  in  great 
misery,  at  the  early  age  of  thirty-five,  in  1557,  at  Pforzheim, 
where  he  had  been  received  by  the  Margrave  of  Baden, 

In  the  treaty  of  Passau  it  had  been  agreed  upon  that  a 
Diet  should  be  summoned  for  the  complete  and  ultimate 
settlement  of  the  religious  grievances.  This  was  held  at 
Augsburg,  in  1555.  Charles  again  left  everything  to  his 
brother.  The  treaty  of  Augsburg,  which  was  then  concluded, 
secured  liberty  of  religion  to  all  the  princes  and  knights,  and 
to  the  senates  of  the  free  cities  ;  that  is  to  say,  to  about 
20,000  privileged  persons ;  not,  however,  to  the  twenty  millions 
of  the  German  people.  These  might  be  Protestants,  but  if  they 
lived  in  a  Catholic  country  the  prince  had  the  right  to 
command  them  to  emigrate.  The  principle  was  laid  down 
'•  Cujus  regio,  ejus  religio'' ;  in  other  words,  whatever  faith  the 
ruler  of  the  country  professed  the  people  had  to  profess  like- 
wise, or  to  leave  the  country.  According  to  the  "  spiritual 
clause,"  ecclesiastical  princes  might  become  Protestants  in 
their  own  persons,  but  if  bishops  and  abbots  wished  to  change 
their  religion  they  forfeited  their  sees  and  prebends.  The 
countries  of  Catholic  ecclesiastical  princes  must  needs,  there- 
fore, remain  Catholic.  Of  Protestants,  the  Lutherans  alone 
were  tolerated  ;  the  Calvinists  were  not  included  in  the  peace. 

This  treaty,  or,  as  it  is  called,  "  Peace  of  Religion,"  was 
the  sad  ending  of  the  Reformation.  The  movement,  which 
had  begun  as  a  popular  cause,  terminated  as  a  political  com- 
promise of  the  princes. 


RESIGNATION     OF     THE     EMPEROR  I47 

8. — Resignation  of  Charles  V. — His  death  in  Spain. 

Since  the  terrible  days  of  ignominious  flight,  when  the 
proud  heart  of  the  master  of  two  hemispheres  was  humbled 
in  the  loneliness  of  his  mountain  journey,  amidst  the  excru- 
ciating tortures  of  disease,  Charles  seems  to  have  conceived 
the  plan  of  at  once  casting  off  all  that  pomp  which  had  until 
now  surrounded  but  not  satisfied  him.  He  had  once  more 
tried  the  fortune  of  war  against  France ;  but  he  was  not  even 
able  to  reconquer  Metz.  And  yet  he  had  for  this  very  purpose 
had  recourse  to  the  expedient  which  completely  destroyed  his 
credit  in  Germany — that  of  taking  the  brutal  Albert  of  Bran- 
denburg into  his  service.  We  may  gather  with  what  feelings 
he  did  so  from  a  letter  of  his  to  his  sister  Mary,  to  whom  he 
wrote  on  the  13th  of  November :  "  Dieu  scayt  ce  que  je  sens, 
me  veoyr  en  termes  de  fayre  ce  que  je  fays  avec  le  dit  marquis, 
mais  necessite  n'a  point  de  loy."  The  hand  of  every  man  was 
raised  against  him ;  he  could  not  trust  his  own  relations. 
The  most  potent  and  invincible  Charles  had  indeed  been 
brought  very  low,  as  he  had  to  bear  with  the  most  bitter 
home  truths  from  very  small  princes  of  the  Empire  before  he 
confirmed  the  outlawry  against  the  wild  Margrave ;  and  yet 
he  still  adhered  to  his  principal  plan  of  procuring  the  crown 
of  the  Germano-Roman  Empire  for  his  son  Philip. 

The  old  Emperor  suffered  more  and  more  both  in  mind 
and  body.  The  sharper  the  twinges  of  gout,  the  more  his 
melancholy  increased.  He  sat  often  for  days  moodily  brood- 
ing, and  sometimes  breaking  out  into  a  flood  of  tears  without 
speaking  a  word.  Many  years  before,  when  his  Portuguese 
wife  was  alive,  he  had  entertained  the  plan  that  each  should 
retire  into  a  convent.  In  1549,  at  the  death  of  Paul  HI.,  the 
proposal  had  been  made  to  him  to  become  Pope,  as  his  grand- 
father Maximilian  had  once  intended  to  do.  His  physicians 
had  long  urged  him  to  live  in  a  warmer  climate. 

On  the  26th  of  October,  1555,  Charles  performed  the  act 
of  resigning  the  Netherlands  to  Philip,  whom  he  sent  for  from 
England,  where  the  Infant  had  lived  ever  since  his  marriage 
with  "Bloody  Mary"  in  1553.    The  ceremony  took  place  at 

10 — 2 


148  ■  CHARLES     V. 

Brussels,  in  the  same  hall  in  which  forty  years  before  he  had 
entered  upon  his  reign.  The  gouty  and  melancholy  Emperor 
rose  with  difficulty  from  his  chair,  his  right  hand  resting  on  a 
staff,  and  his  left  on  the  shoulder  of  the  Prince  William  of 
Orange.  His  speech,  which  he  delivered  in  French,  drew 
tears  of  the  deepest  emotion  from  the  whole  of  that  large 
assembly.  He  set  forth  "  that  since  his  seventeenth  year  all 
his  thoughts  had  been  bent  upon  the  glorious  government  of 
his  Empire ;  that  he  had  tried  to  see  everything  with  his  own 
eyes ;  and  that  therefore  his  reign  had  been  one  continuous 
pilgrimage.  He  had  visited  Germany  nine,  Spain  six,  France 
four,  Italy  seven,  and  the  Netherlands  ten  times.  He  had 
been  twice  in  England,  and  as  often  in  Africa ;  and  had,  on 
the  whole,  made  eleven  voyages  by  sea — eight  on  the  Mediter- 
ranean and  three  on  the  Atlantic.  Now,  however,  he  was 
reminded,  by  his  failing  strength,  to  retire  from  the  turmoil  of 
worldly  business,  and  to  lay  the  burden  on  younger  shoulders. 
If  in  all  his  endeavours  and  exertions  he  had  neglected  or 
mismanaged  anything  of  importance,  he  from  all  his  heart 
begged  the  pardon  of  all  those  who  had  been  wronged  by  it. 
He  would  himself  affectionately  remember  his  faithful  Nether- 
landers  to  the  day  of  his  death,  and  would  never  cease  to  pray 
to  God  for  their  welfare."  Upon  this,  turning  to  his  son,  who 
went  down  on  his  knees  before  him  and  kissed  his  hand,  he 
exhorted  him,  in  the  most  impressive  manner,  "to  do  his 
utmost  to  make  his  reign  glorious."  At  last  he  fell  back 
breathless  into  his  chair. 

On  the  15th  of  January,  1556,  Charles  resigned,  in  the 
same  solemn  manner,  at  the  house  of  Count  de  Oropeza  at 
Brussels,  the  kingdoms  of  Spain,  with  all  their  dependencies 
in  the  old  and  new  worlds,  to  Don  Philip ;  and  in  August,  the 
government  of  Germany  into  the  hands  of  the  envoys  of  his 
brother  Ferdinand. 

Philip  remained  at  Brussels  until  1559.  Charles,  on  the 
other  hand,  prepared  to  sail  to  Spain  as  soon  as  possible,  and 
only  waited  at  Flushing  for  a  fair  wind.  Dr.  Seid,  the  vice- 
chancellor  of  the  Empire,  his  brother's  envoy,  was  still  with 
him.     One  evening  he  conversed  with  him  until  a  late  hour. 


CHARLES     RETURNS     TO     SPAIN  I49 

He  then  rang  the  bell,  but  none  of  the  servants  came.  Charles 
thereupon  took  the  candle  himself,  and  lighted  the  doctor  down- 
stairs, saying,  "  Take  this  for  ever  as  a  remembrance  of  the 
Emperor  Charles,  who,  after  having  in  times  bygone  been 
surrounded  by  so  many  warriors  and  guards,  is  now  deserted 
by  everyone,  even  by  his  own  servants ;  whom  you  have  served 
so  long,  and  who  now  has  served  you  in  his  turn,  wishing 
thereby  to  honour  your  virtue  and  ability." 

On  the  17th  of  September,  1556,  Charles  embarked  with 
his  two  sisters  Mary  Queen-dowager  of  Hungary,  and  Eleanor 
Queen-dowager  of  France,  on  the  coast  of  Zealand,  and  landed 
in  Spain  at  Laredo,  on  the  coast  of  Biscay.  On  touching  the 
land  he  kissed  the  ground,  with  the  words,  "  Naked  came  I 
out  of  my  mother's  womb,  and  naked  shall  I  return  thither." 
He  kept  his  sisters  with  him  as  far  as  Valladolid,  where  he 
dismissed  them.  From  thence  he  went  to  Estramadura,  where 
a  small  house  was  being  built  for  him  near  the  Jeromite  con- 
vent of  Yuste.  Don  Philip,  as  a  complimentary  present,  sent 
to  his  father,  on  his  return  to  Spain,  a  heart  of  gold  studded 
with  precious  stones ;  on  receiving  which  Charles  called  out 
with  melancholy  foreboding,  "  God  grant  that  his  heart  may 
not  become  as  hard  as  these  stones." 

Philip,  immediately  after  the  Emperor's  abdication  at  the 
house  of  Count  de  Oropeza,  had  made  him  wait  several  weeks 
for  his  stipulated  annual  revenue,  so  that  Charles  had  not 
been  able  to  pay  his  servants.  The  son  afterwards  even 
reduced  the  pension  of  his  father  to  one-half  of  the  amount. 

The  Jeromite  monastery  of  Yuste,  founded  in  1410,  was 
situate  in  a  mountainous  district,  famous  for  its  beauty  and  its 
salubrious  air,  and  frequented  even  to  this  day,  in  the  hot 
season,  by  the  Spanish  nobility  and  gentry.  This  was  that 
most  delightful  valley,  twelve  Spanish  miles  long  and  three 
broad,  called  the  orchard  of  Placentia,  in  the  midst  of  gardens 
and  plantations,  enlivened  by  a  profusion  of  cool  springs  and 
mountain  torrents.  Ten  years  before,  this  country  had  so 
pleased  Charles,  that  he  exclaimed,  "  Here  is  a  place  of  rest 
for  a  second  Diocletian !  "  He  was  not  able  to  enter  his  new 
abode  until  February,  1557,  as  the  building  was  not  completed. 


150  CHARLES    V. 

The  house  inhabited  by  Charles  lay  close  to  the  church  of  the 
monastery.  When  he  was  ill,  he  might  hear  the  mass  and  the 
chanting  from  his  bedroom.  In  this  bedroom  was  hung  the 
celebrated  "  Glory"  by  Titian,  his  favourite  painter,  who  had 
long  travelled  in  his  suite.  The  eight  rooms  of  his  mansion 
overlooked  his  own  garden  and  those  of  the  monastery.  All 
was  very  still  and  lonely.  Charles  lived  at  Yuste  not  quite 
two  years.  During  this  time  he  only  saw  his  sisters  twice, 
but  his  son  Philip  never  again.  When  the  state  of  his 
health  permitted,  he  would  walk  out  to  a  small  hermitage  in 
the  neighbourhood,  under  the  shadow  of  some  noble  old  chest- 
nut trees ;  sometimes  he  would  ride  on  a  sumpter  horse,  but 
at  last  was  unable  even  to  do  that.  Having  a  taste  for 
music,  he  loved  to  be  present  at  the  chanting  in  the  church-, 
and  the  superiors  of  the  monastery  took  good  care  to  assemble 
all  the  finest  voices  for  their  choir. 

He  had  with  him  the  afterwards  so  famous  Don  Juan 
d'Austria,  at  that  time  in  his  tenth  year,  who  seems  to  have 
been  just  as  mischievous  as  other  boys,  to  judge  at  least  from 
the  fact  of  the  peasants  of  the  neighbourhood  being  obliged 
frequently  to  drive  him  away  from  their  cherry-trees  by  pelting 
him  with  stones.  Charles  kept  up  an  uninterrupted  corre- 
spondence with  his  son  Philip,  and  by  this  means  took  at 
least  an  indirect  part  in  the  government.  On  receiving  the 
news  of  the  victory  of  St.  Quentin,  in  1557,  he  asked,  "  Is 
my  son  in  Paris  ? "  Being  answered  in  the  negative,  he 
gnashed  his  teeth  with  rage.  The  time  left  to  him  by  his 
religious  exercises  he  employed  in  gardening ;  he  also  amused 
himself  with  clocks,  of  which  he  had  a  great  number,  and 
which  he  endeavoured  to  make  all  go  together  ;  and  when  he 
could  not  succeed  in  making  two  to  go  alike  for  any  time,  he 
would  exclaim,  "  Clocks  are  like  men  !  " 

On  the  day  when  he  caused  his  own  obsequies  to  be 
solemnised  by  the  friars  (the  31st  August,  1558),  he  caught 
a  cold,  by  which  the  deadly  fever  already  in  him  was  brought 
to  its  fatal  height.  He  knelt  several  days  with  his  eyes 
streaming  before  a  large  crucifix,  fervently  clasping  it  in  his 
embrace.     The   learned    Dominican   Bartholomew  de   Car- 


THE     LAST    DAYS     OF    CHARLES  I5I 

ranza,  archbishop  of  Toledo,  administered  extreme  unction 
to  the  dying  monarch.^  One  of  his  last  sayings  was:  "//f 
mamis  tuas,  Doniine,  commendo  spiritnm  nietim ;  redeniisti  nos, 
Domine,  Dens  vevitatis : "  words  which  he  frequently  repeated 
during  his  last  illness.  He  died  on  the  21st  of  September, 
1558,  in  his  fifty-ninth  year. 

Bakhuizen  van  der  Brink,  a  Dutch  savant,  has  published^ 
some  very  curious  details  of  the  last  days  of  the  life  of  the 
Emperor  Charles  V.  from  the  manuscript  of  a  friar  of  the 
convent  of  Yuste,  found  in  the  archives  in  the  old  heralds' 
office  at  Brussels. 

"  On  the  28th  of  September,  1556,  Charles  landed  at 
Laredo.  On  the  nth  of  November  he  retired  to  the  small 
town  of  Xarandilla,  at  a  distance  of  one  (Spanish)  mile  from 
the  monastery  of  Yuste,  there  to  wait  until  the  house  should 
be  completed  which  was  then  building  for  him  at  the  latter 
place.  He  anxiously  wished  to  remove  as  soon  as  possible 
to  his  new  residence.  But  although  he,  on  the  25th  of 
November,  went  himself  to  Yuste  to  inspect  as  much  as  was 
finished,  and  to  urge  the  workmen  to  greater  speed,  the  house 
was  not  made  thoroughly  habitable  until  February,  1557. 
It  contained  eight  rooms,  all  of  the  same  size — twenty  feet 
broad  by  twenty-five  feet  long.  Four  apartments  on  the 
ground-floor  were  intended  for  the  summer  months  ;  and  four 
on  the  second  story,  with  large  chimneys,  for  winter.  A 
wide  corridor  ran  along  the  whole  building  on  each  story. 
The  south  front  of  the  house  was  on  each  side  flanked  by  a 
turret,  with  a  fountain  playing  in  the  centre,  in  the  basin  of 
which  trout  were  kept,  for  which  the  Emperor  had  a  great 
fancy.  On  the  right  the  building  bordered  on  a  secluded 
garden,  richly  laid  out  with  trees  and  flowers  of  his  own 
choosing,  and   likewise  cooled   by  a  jet  of  water.     The   left 

1  This  is  a  mistake ;  the  prelate  only  arrived  after  the  ceremony  had 
been  performed,  as  the  critical  state  of  the  Emperor  made  it  advisable  not 
to  delay  it  any  longer. — Translator. 

2  The  German  original  of  this  volume  of  the  present  Memoirs  was 
published  in  1852,  before  Mr.  Stirling's  most  interesting  "  Cloister  Life." 
The  very  slight  discrepancies  between  the  accounts  of  the  two  monks  are 
an  additional  proof  of  the  general  authenticity  of  both. — Translator. 


152  CHARLES    V. 

angle  joined  a  large  courtyard  adorned  with  a  magnificent 
fountain,  which  was  cut  from  a  single  block  of  marble  ;  and 
with  a  sun-dial,  a  masterpiece  of  its  kind,  by  the  celebrated 
mechanician  Gianello  Torreano.  By  the  church  of  the  con- 
vent, which  lay  higher  by  twenty  feet  than  the  imperial  villa, 
it  was  sheltered  from  the  blasts  of  the  north.  A  covered 
staircase  like  a  gallery  afforded  to  the  Emperor,  who  was 
sorely  troubled  with  the  gout,  an  easy  access  to  the  church 
and  gardens  of  the  convent.  The  apartments  were  lighted 
by  many  large  windows,  through  which  the  sweet  balmy  air 
poured  in  from  the  lemon  and  orange  trees  of  the  garden,  and 
from  which  the  eye  might  roam  over  the  noble  verdure  of 
dark  woods  to  the  neighbouring  ridges  of  hills,  glimmering 
with  the  golden  tints  of  their  luxuriant  vineyards.  Although 
the  imperial  mansion  was  but  a  plain  wooden  structure  of 
very  humble  aspect  from  without,  yet  its  interior  was  fur- 
nished with  every  elegance  and  comfort  that  could  make  it 
a  delightful  residence. 

"  When  Charles  settled  at  Yuste  he  dismissed  part  only 
of  his  household,  retaining  in  his  service  upwards  of  fifty 
persons,  Spaniards,  Netherlanders,  Burgundians ;  the  only 
German  among  them  was  the  assistant  baker.  The  lower 
officers  of  his  court  who  could  not  be  accommodated  in  the 
outbuildings  of  the  convent,  were  lodged  in  the  neighbouring 
little  village  of  Quacos.  Those  who  held  the  first  rank  among 
his  gentlemen  never  left  their  master.  His  familiar  circle 
comprised,  besides  his  major-domo  and  favourite  Quixada, 
two  Flemings  of  Bruges — William  de  Male,  who  frequently 
acted  as  his  secretary,  and  Henry  Matthys,  his  physician. 

"Although  Charles  still  kept  up  a  regular  correspondence 
with  his  son  Philip  H.,  who  was  then  in  the  Netherlands, 
and  with  his  daughter  Juaha,  the  regent  of  the  kingdom  of 
Spain,  yet  he  withdrew  his  thoughts  from  the  stormy  stage 
which  he  had  left  for  ever.  Many  petitioners  applied  for  an 
audience,  but  he  refused  to  admit  them,  simply  referring  them 
to  those  in  whose  favour  he  had  abdicated.  He  only  reluctantly 
consented  to  receive  some  great  lords  who  wished  to  pay  him 
their  respects.    On  such  occasions  the  major-domo  would  take 


HIS     CLOISTER     LIFE  I53 

the  utmost  care  that  in  the  presence  of  Charles  the  same 
etiquette  should  be  observed  as  in  the  times  when  he  was 
Emperor  of  Germany,  King  of  Spain  and  Naples. 

"  The  plan  of  his  daily  life  was  as  followr  :  Every  morning 
the  clockmaker  (mechanician)  Gianello  was  the  first  to  enter 
the  room  of  the  Emperor.  He  was  succeeded  by  the  friar 
Juan  Regala,  his  confessor,  who  read  prayers.  After  him 
came  the  surgeons  and  the  physician.  At  ten,  dinner  was 
served  for  those  officers  who  were  to  attend  afterwards  at  the 
table  of  the  Emperor ;  after  their  repast,  at  which  the  gentleman 
on  duty  presided,  they  followed  the  Emperor  to  mass.  Divine 
service  being  concluded,  the  Emperor  sat  down  to  his  own 
dinner,  listening  with  pleasure  to  the  discourse  of  Dr.  Matthys 
and  William  de  Male,  which  generally  bore  upon  subjects  of 
history  or  of  military  science.  Sometimes  the  confessor  was 
ordered  to  read  to  the  Emperor  during  his  repast  a  chapter 
from  St.  Bernard  or  any  other  good  writer,  until  His  Majesty 
fell  into  a  nap  or  rose  from  the  table  to  be  present  at  a  sermon 
or  a  reading  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  held  before  the  assembled 
friars.  Charles  attended  mass  in  a  raised  stall  set  apart  for 
him,  and  confessed  and  took  the  sacrament  at  all  the  great 
festivals ;  yet  the  Pope  had  dispensed  him  from  fasting  before 
the  communion,  as  he  was  too  weak  and  infirm  to  stand  it." 

This  was  the  whole  extent  of  the  religious  exercises  of  the 
Emperor  at  the  monastery  at  Yuste.  The  MS.  does  not  make 
the  slightest  mention  of  the  discipline,  in  virtue  of  which, 
according  to  Robertson's  statements,  Charles  had  flagellated 
himself  till  the  blood  flowed.  The  Emperor,  suffering  severely 
from  the  gout,  was  scarcely  able  to  move ;  he  always  had  two 
of  his  gentlemen  to  accompany  him,  on  whom  he  would  lean 
when  he  tried  to  walk,  or  even  when  he  was  carried  in  a  sedan- 
chair. 

Once  only  did  the  Emperor  dine  with  the  friars  in  their 
refectory ;  yet,  although  a  separate  table  had  been  dressed  for 
him,  and  the  cooks  of  the  convent  had  done  their  very  best 
duly  to  honour  their  illustrious  guest,  he  w^as  so  little  edified 
with  the  conventual  bill  of  fare  that  he  never  repeated  his  visit 
to  that  dining-hall.     According  to  the  friar  to  whose  MS.  we 


154  CHARLES    V. 

owe  our  information,  Charles  never  intended  to  enter  their 
order,  nor  did  he  ever  wear  their  dress.  But  it  is  a  fact  that 
he  had  his  obsequies  solemnised  in  his  lifetime. 

One  day,  when  he  felt   particularly  free  from   pain,  he 
ordered  mass  for  the  souls  of  his  ancestors  and  of  his  late 
Empress.    On  the  evening  of  the  same  day  he  had  a  conversa- 
tion with  his  confessor,  and  ordered  for  the  next  morning  his 
own  obsequies.     It  was  on  the  31st  of  August,  1558.     The 
catafalque  was  erected  in  the  large  chapel  of  the   church. 
Charles  attended  with  the  whole  of  his  little  court  in  deep 
mourning.     The  ceremony  lasted  the  greater  part  of  the  day. 
When  it  was  over  Charles,  in  a  state  of  great  exhaustion, 
caused  himself  to  be  set  down  in  the  courtyard  of  his  house, 
his  face  turned  towards  the  east.    He  remained  there  sitting  a 
good  while,  with  his  eyes  fixed  on  Gianello's  sun-dial.     Then, 
rousing  himself  from  his  silent  reverie,  he  had  a  likeness  of  his 
late  wife  brought  to  him,  which  he  looked  at  for  some  time. 
After  this  he  asked  for  a  picture  representing  Christ  in  the 
Garden  of  Gethsemane,  and  lastly,  for  a  third  picture,  a  repre- 
sentation of  the  Last  Judgment.     All  at  once  a  shudder  ran 
through  him,  when,  turning  to  his  physician,  he  said,  "  I  feel 
unwell,  doctor."     This  gentleman   carried   him   to   his  bed, 
which  he  left  no  more.     He  died  on  the  21st  of  September, 
after  having  passed  in  the  peaceful  solitude  of  Yuste  only  one 
year  and  eight  months  all  but  nine  days. 

Charles  in  his  last  will  directed  that  he  should  not  be 
embalmed;  but  when,  in  1656,  his  remains  were  transferred 
to  the  Pantheon  of  the  Escurial,  on  which  occasion  his  coffin 
was  opened,  his  body  was  found  to  be  quite  uncorrupted.* 

P. — Personal  notices  of  Charles  V, 

Charles,  in  his  younger  days,  and  before  he  was  tormented 
by  asthma  and  gout,  had  been  a  very  fine  man.  He  was  of 
ordinary  size,  rather  tall  than  short,  inclined  to  stoutness,  but 
had  thin  legs.     His  complexion  in  the  prime  of  life  was  as 

»  According  to  Mr.  Stirling's  account,  it  was  embalmed  on  the  very 
day  of  the  Emperor's  death. — Translator. 


PERSONAL    NOTICES  I55 

white  as  milk ;  his  hands  also  were  equally  white.  His  hair 
was  light,  with  a  bright  auburn  tinge ;  since  his  Italian 
journey  in  1529  he  wore  it  cut  short,  on  account  of  a  ten- 
dency to  nervous  headache.  About  the  same  period,  living 
much  in  Germany,  he  began  to  have  his  beard  trimmed  after 
the  then  existing  German  fashion.  His  first  grey  hairs  he 
accidentally  discovered,  when  not  more  than  thirty-six  years 
old,  at  Naples,  whilst  he  was  dressing  for  a  ball,  where,  as 
he  himself  confesses,  he  "  wished  to  please  the  ladies."  He 
had  them  plucked  out,  but  they  grew  again.  His  eyes  were 
of  a  bluish-grey;  his  forehead  broad  and  ample.  His  long, 
pale  face  would  decidedly  not  have  been  called  handsome, 
disfigured  as  it  was  by  his  large  and  somewhat  open  mouth, 
with  the  hanging  under-lip  of  the  Habsburg  race,  and  by  his 
protruding  lower  jaw,  covered  with  a  short,  curly  beard.  His 
nose  was  very  long,  and  strongly  aquiline.  Moreover  he  had, 
in  his  later  years,  but  few  and  bad  teeth  left.  His  eyes  lacked 
lustre.  His  constitution  was  very  feeble,  and  his  nerves  were 
weak  and  irritable.  He  always  looked  grave  and  serious, 
only  on  very  rare  occasions  allowing  a  smile  to  light  up  his 
pale,  gloomy  countenance.  His  melancholy  temperament  and 
his  Spanish  gravity  showed  themselves  in  everything.  There 
are  still  in  existence  many  of  his  portraits  by  Titian,  to  whom 
he  used  to  pay  a  thousand  ducats  for  each  ;  Charles  wished 
to  be  painted  by  no  other  artist,  just  as  Alexander  only  by 
Apelles. 

In  his  younger  days  Charles,  like  his  brother  Ferdinand, 
had  been  obliging,  affable,  and  easy  with  everyone ;  but  his 
principal  adviser  for  Spain,  the  Grand  Commander  Covos, 
had  entreated  him  to  change  this  Netherlandish  manner, 
urging  that  whoever  wished  to  keep  the  Spaniards  in  their 
place  should  show  himself  grave  and  stern,  as  they  were 
naturally  very  proud.  Charles  afterwards  introduced  the 
strict  and  solemn  Spanish  etiquette  also  in  Germany  ;  even 
his  brother,  the  King  of  the  Romans,  never  spoke  to  him  but 
with  his  hat  off  and  with  a  profusion  of  bows.  At  the  age 
of  twenty-six  Charles  married  the  beauteous  and  graceful 
Isabel  of  Portugal,  then  in   her  twenty-third   year.      Three 


156  CHARLES     V. 

French  and  two  English  princesses  had  been  before  thought 
of  for  him — two  daughters  of  Louis  XII.  and  one  of  Francis  I. 
of  France,  one  daughter  of  Henry  VII.  and  one  of  Henry  VIII. 
of  England;  the  last  of  these,  the  Princess,  afterwards  Queen 
Mary,  became  in  1554,  at  the  age  of  thirty-eight,  the  wife  of 
his  son  Don  Philip,  her  junior  by  eleven  years. 

The  marriage  of  Charles  and  Isabel  was  celebrated  at 
Seville  on  the  loth  of  March,  1526.  The  following  account 
is  from  an  old  contemporary  pamphlet : 

"  The  princess  arrived  at  Seville  by  ship  eight  days  before 
the  wedding.  On  the  loth  of  March  Charles  came  from 
Madrid  just  after  having  taken  leave  at  Illescas  of  Francis  I., 
until  then  his  prisoner  of  war.  The  royal  bridegroom  was 
attended  by  the  papal  legate.  Cardinal  Salviati,  and  a  great 
number  of  prelates  and  grandees.  Before  the  city  he  was 
received  by  the  Governor  Philip,  duke  of  Arschot,  of  the 
house  of  Croy,  and  by  twenty-four  members  of  the  Council 
of  Seville,  who  were  admitted  to  kiss  the  Emperor's  hand. 
They  were  followed  by  the  Archbishop  of  Seville,  to  whom 
the  Emperor  took  his  oath  that  he  would  preserve  the  liberties 
of  the  Spanish  nation.  Charles  wore  a  dress  of  plain  white 
silk  embroidered  with  gold ;  he  was  mounted  on  a  beautiful 
white  horse,  and  held  in  his  right  hand  an  olive  branch.  With 
a  gorgeous  canopy  borne  over  him,  he  was  led  through  seven 
triumphal  arches  to  the  cathedral,  whence,  after  having  per- 
formed his  devotions,  he  repaired  to  the  royal  palace." 

"  In  the  third  hour  of  the  night  the  Emperor  and  the 
princess  met  in  the  royal  hall,  which  was  most  splendidly 
decorated.  They  had  scarcely  saluted  each  other  when  the 
cardinal  legate  made  his  appearance  to  perform  the  marriage 
ceremony.  At  midnight  the  Archbishop  of  Toledo  read  mass, 
at  which,  after  having  confessed,  the  Emperor  and  the  princess 
received  the  sacrament.  After  the  blessing  of  the  archbishop 
they,  in  a  holy  and  Christian  spirit,  entered  the  nuptial 
chamber." 

Charles  lost  his  beautiful  wife  Isabel  in  1539,  after  a  union 
of  thirteen  years,  at  the  birth  of  her  fourth  child,  when  she 
refused  to  call  in  a  surgeon -accoucheur.     After  her  death  the 


HIS     PROFLIGACY  I57 

Emperor  was  again  seized  with  epileptic  fits,  from  which  he 
had  been  free  ever  since  his  marriage.  Charles  had  lived 
very  happily  with  Isabel.  His  temper  was  completely 
changed,  and  he  had  adopted  a  different  diet  and  different 
manners.  His  grief  at  her  loss  was  unbounded.  He  sat  for 
several  days  in  silent  despair  beside  her  corpse,  inaccessible 
to  every  thought  of  public  business ;  like  a  madman  he  flew 
with  a  drawn  dagger  at  those  who  dared  to  intrude  upon  the 
solitude  of  his  sacred  sorrow.  The  Duke  of  Borghia,  the 
celebrated  Jesuit,  had  to  admonish  him,  at  first  gently  and 
kindly,  but  at  last  very  roughly,  not  to  forget  the  living,  as 
the  dead  could  not  come  to  life  again.  Then  only  Charles 
rallied,  and  allowed  the  beloved  remains  to  be  interred. 

After  Isabel's  death  Charles  would  not  hear  of  a  second 
marriage,  although  the  Marquis  del  Vasto  proposed  to  him 
Margaret,  the  youngest  daughter  of  Francis  L,  who  after- 
wards married  Emanuel  Philibert  of  Savoy.  Not  yielding  in 
gallantry  to  his  royal  brothers  Francis  I.  and  Henry  VIII., 
Charles  again  engaged  in  amorous  intrigues,  just  as  he  had 
done  before  marriage;  and  when  his  health  was  repeatedly 
impaired  by  his  excesses,  he  used  the  maddest  cures.  De 
Thou  expressly  states,  that  in  all  his  love  affairs  he  observed 
the  greatest  secrecy.  But  his  confessor  Garcia  de  Loaysa 
was  very  well  aware  of  his  profligacy,  and  again  and  again 
wrote  to  him  during  the  years  1530 — 1532,  even  before  the 
death  of  his  wife,  that  he  should  not  allow  himself  to  be 
carried  away  by  this  insidious  sensuality,  lest  on  the  couch  of 
luxury  and  sloth  he  might  miss  the  sacred  purpose  of  his 
existence. 

One  of  his  natural  sons  was  the  celebrated  Don  Juan 
d' Austria,  the  conqueror  of  the  Turks  at  Lepanto.  He  was 
supposed  to  be  the  son  of  Barbara  Blomberg,  the  fair 
daughter  of  a  burgher  at  Ratisbon,  who  during  the  Diet 
of  1544  had  soothed  the  melancholy  of  the  Emperor  by  her 
sweet  singing.  According  to  another  statement  —  that  of 
Girolamo  Lippomani,  Don  Juan's  envoy  at  Naples  in  1575 — 
his  mother  was  a  noble  lady  of  Flanders,  Madama  di  Plombes, 
who  was  then  still  living  at  Antwerp,  and  to  whom  Charles 


158  CHARLES    V. 

had  given  a  husband  with  a  yearly  income  of  10,000  ducats. 
A  princess  of  the  first  rank  was  suspected  to  be  the  real 
mother ;  but  it  was  never  known  with  certainty.  Don  Juan 
d' Austria  was  born  on  the  25th  of  February,  1545,  and  was  in 
1550,  at  Brussels,  entrusted  by  Adrian,  the  valet  of  Charles, 
to  the  care  of  Francisco  Massi  and  his  wife  Anna  de  Medina ; 
a  hundred  crowns  a  year  being  paid  for  his  board.  He  after- 
wards accompanied  his  father  to  Yuste,  and  was  in  Spain  also 
kept  in  the  most  complete  ignorance  as  to  his  descent.  After 
the  death  of  Charles  he  was  told  who  he  was.  In  1561 
Philip  II.  acknowledged  him  at  a  hunting  party  as  his 
brother,  and  took  him  to  his  court.  His  father  had  in  his 
last  will  expressed  a  wish  that  he  should  devote  himself  to  a 
monastic  life  ;  but,  in  case  he  should  not  feel  any  inclination 
to  do  so,  a  yearly  pension  of  from  20,000  to  30,000  ducats  was 
settled  on  him,  to  be  paid  from  the  revenues  of  the  kingdom 
of  Naples. 

Charles  was  a  very  proud  lord,  and  knew  better  than 
anyone  how  to  make  himself  regarded  and  looked  up  to  as 
long  as  he  lived.  His  person  and  character  forced  even  his 
enemies  to  respect  him  ;  none  of  his  contemporaries  have 
spoken  meanly  of  him.  It  was  not  merely  the  adventitious 
fact  of  his  exalted  position,  but  innate  majesty  and  greatness 
which  commanded  the  homage  of  the  world.  He  showed 
singular  power  of  self-control,  and  was  anxious  on  every 
occasion  to  prove  himself  the  first,  not  only  in  rank,  but 
in  fortitude  and  high-souled  conduct. 

The  rule  which,  in  this  respect,  he  imposed  upon  himself 
he  wished  to  be  observed  also  by  others.  In  several  instances 
he  opposed  great  sternness  to  the  pride  of  the  Spanish 
grandees,  who  tried  to  treat  with  contempt  those  whom 
Charles,  on  account  of  their  merit,  had  raised  to  the  rank 
which  the  others  had  been  born  to.  His  brave  captain 
Antonio  de  Leyva  was  hated  by  the  Spanish  nobiHty  because 
he  was  the  son  of  a  shoemaker  of  Navarre,  and  because 
Charles  had  made  him  a  duke  ;  he  was  hated  by  the  Spanish 
clergy  because  he  helped  himself  to  their  silver  when  he  could 
not  pay  his  troops  in  any  other  way ;  he  was  hated  by  the 


OLD     LEWA  159 

ladies  because  he  did  not  pay  his  court  to  them ;  and,  lastly, 
he  was  hated  by  the  people  because  he  lived  as  if  the  world 
were  only  made  for  the  soldiers.  There  were  none  who  loved 
Leyva  but  his  men  and  the  Emperor,  who  made  him  Prince 
of  Ascoli  and  appointed  him  Governor  of  Milan.  When 
Charles,  in  1530,  came  to  Bologna  to  be  crowned,  old  Leyva 
caused  himself  to  be  carried  in  a  litter  to  Piacenza  to  meet 
his  sovereign.  On  this  occasion,  Charles,  as  Frederic  the 
Great  afterwards  in  the  case  of  General  Ziethen,  made  Leyva 
to  sit  down  in  an  arm-chair  and  cover  himself.  Charles  then 
uttered  the  remarkable  words:  "  The  grandees  of  Spain  cover 
themselves  near  my  throne,  and  should  the  old  man  of  seventy 
years,  who  has  been  in  sixty  battles  for  me,  stand  bare- 
headed before  his  master,  who  is  only  thirty  ?  I  cannot, 
forsooth,  do  less  than  grant  to  personal  merit  the  same  dis- 
tinction as  to  that  which  is  only  hereditary."  In  the  pro- 
cession, on  entering  Bologna,  Leyva,  by  order  of  Charles, 
rode  by  the  side  of  Andrew  Doria,  before  the  archbishops 
and  bishops,  two  noblemen  leading  his  horse.  Leyva  died 
in  1536,  in  the  third  campaign  against  the  French. 

At  a  festivity  of  the  court  in  Madrid,  when  the  nobility 
held  a  carousal,  the  courtiers  agreed  to  exclude  a  certain  officer 
who  had  only  shortly  before  been  ennobled,  and  whose  name 
was  on  the  list.  Charles,  having  been  informed  of  it,  drily 
said  to  the  chief  equerry,  on  entering  the  arena,  "  Let  no 
one  take  this  nobleman  from  me ;  I  have  selected  him  for 
my  own  quadrille."  A  proud  Castilian  lady  and  an  equally 
proud  fair  Neapolitan  were  once  quarrelling  about  precedence 
at  the  door  of  the  palace  chapel  in  Brussels,  when  Charles 
promptly  settled  their  squabble  with  the  words,  "  Let  the 
most  foolish  go  in  first." 

The  Cavaliere  Ridolfi,  in  his  "  Vite  de'  Pittori  Veneti," 
states  that  one  day,  Titian  happening  to  drop  his  brush  whilst 
being  at  work,  the  Emperor  picked  it  up  and  handed  it  to 
the  artist.  As  he  saw  his  courtiers  surprised  and  displeased 
at  his  condescension,  he  remarked,  "  I  have  always  people 
about  me  who  bow  before  me,  but  I  have  not  always  a 
Titian." 


l60  CHARLES     V. 

Another  proof  of  the  greatness  of  mind  in  Charles  was 
his  hatred  of  flattery.  His  son-in-law,  Alexander  of  Medici, 
once  recommended  his  protege,  the  well-known  historian  Paul 
Jovius  of  Como  (Bishop  of  Nocera,  died  in  1552),  for  a 
pension,  with  the  remark,  that  Paul  was  engaged  in  writing 
the  history  of  all  the  great  men  of  his  age,  and  that  he  in- 
tended to  write  among  the  others  that  of  the  Emperor. 
Charles  replied,  "  Just  because  he  intends  to  write  my  life 
I  should  be  ashamed  to  bribe  him  by  a  pension  ;  let  him 
relate  to  us  the  history  of  bygone  times,  and  I  will  read  and 
reward  him."  Of  this  Italian  Jovius,  and  the  German 
Sleidanus,  professor  and  orator  of  Strassburg  (died  1566), 
Charles  used  to  say,  "  What  a  couple  of  liars !  the  one 
praises  and  the  other  censures  me  more  than  I  deserve." 
Concerning  Sleidanus,  Charles  is  stated  to  have  expressed 
himself  thus :  "  The  rogue  has  certainly  known  much,  but 
not  all ;  he  has  either  been  in  our  privy  council,  or  our 
councillors  have  been  traitors."  To  a  third  biographer,  a 
Spaniard,  Sepulveda  (canon  of  Salamanca,  died  1574), 
Charles  himself  related  remarkable  incidents  of  his  life, 
and,  to  use  his  own  words,  "  as  candidly  as  in  the  con- 
fessional." But  Sepulveda  was  never  allowed  to  read  to 
him  even  one  line  of  what  he  had  written. 

Charles's  court  was  very  quiet,  owing  to  his  strong  dislike 
to  noisy  amusements.  He  did  not  even  give  banquets ;  nay, 
he  always  dined  alone.  Being  fond  of  secrecy  in  everything, 
he  had  also  a  particular  fancy  for  the  occult  arts,  and  occu- 
pied himself,  like  several  of  his  ancestors,  with  the  course 
of  the  planets  round  the  sun.  He  had  for  his  teacher  in 
astronomy  Peter  Bienewiz,  or,  according  to  the  fashion  of 
that  time  of  Latinising  names,  Petrus  Apianus,  a  native  of 
Leisnig  in  Saxony,  and  a  professor  at  the  university  of 
Ingolstadt,  where  he  died  in  1552,  ennobled  by  Charles  V., 
who  gave  him  for  his  coat-of-arms  the  double-headed  eagle 
hovering  in  the  clouds.  Petrus  Apianus  dedicated  to  the 
Emperor  his  large  cosmography,  his  "  Opus  Caesareum,"  the 
Emperor  paying  the  cost  of  printing  ;  besides  which,  he  made 
to  his  teacher  an  additional  present  of  3,000  ducats.     Charles 


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'   the  greatness  of  mmd  in  C:.  . 

His  so  •,  Alexander  of  h: 

IS  protegi  ..   ii-known  historian  i 

omo  (Bishop   of   Nocera,  died   in    1552),   for   a 

\  the  remark,  that  Paul  was  engaged  in  writing 

f  all  the  great  men  of  his  age,  and  that  he  in- 

.0  write  among  the  others  .Ü^3.t   of  the   Emperor. 

„., ^  replied,  "Just  because  he  ipttends  to  write  my  life 

I  should  be  ashamed  to  bribe  him  |^y  a  pension ;  let  him 
relate  to  us  the  history  of  bygone^timps,  and  I  will  read  and 
reward  him."  Of  this?  Italian  üjTo-tois,  and  the  German 
Sleidanus,  professor  an§-  orator  ra  Sttrassburg  (died  1566), 
Charles  used  to  say,  ^What  ^co^le  of  liars !  the  one 
praises  and  the  other  c;ensures  ^  ^ore  than  I  deserve." 
Concerning  Sleidanus,  Charles  is  st^d  to  have  expressed 
himself  thus :  "  The  rogue  has  ^rt^ly  known  much,  but 
not  all ;  he  has  either-^een  in  oui^privy  council,  or  our 
councillors  have  been  fl^aitors."  pXcJ^a  third  biographer,  a 
Spaniard,  Sepulveda  ^auon  o^  Salamanca,  died  1574), 
Charles  himself  relate(§'remarkS>leP^ncidents  of  his  life, 
n /•  <-o  use  his  own  '^ords,  "as  cj^didly  as  in  the  con- 
'.."  But  Sepul-visla  wasrjie^i:^  allowed  to  read  to 
'  ^.e  of  w|iat  he  höS  ^mtten. 
t  was  j^ry  quiet^w^g  to  his  strong  dislike 
He  did  nofe^  e\^  give  banquets ;  nay, 


-^ 


secrecy  m  ev"-"" 
tbed occult  arts. 


Ingolstadt, 
who  gave  h;:-. 
hovering  in  the 
Emperor  his  large  c. 
Emperor  paying  the 
to  his  teacher  an  additic 


-ling  to  the  lashioa  of 

':  Ari ■    -  of 


at- 


I -I  the 

1,"  the 

';  made 

Charles 


PETRUS    APIANUS  l6l 

often  conversed  for  half  a  day  together  with  the  far-famed 
astronomer,  who,  in  1541,  at  the  Diet  of  Ratisbon,  presented 
him  with  an  orrery  of  pure  gold,  at  the  construction  of  which 
he  had  worked  for  ten  years.  Apianus  was  the  best  astro- 
nomical instrument  maker  of  his  time,  and  also  had  at 
Ingolstadt  one  of  the  earliest  collection  of  maps,  which  was 
celebrated  throughout  Europe.  The  Emperor's  favourite 
pursuit,  besides  astronomy,  was  the  science  of  mechanics  and 
mechanical  works :  his  fancy  for  time-pieces  was  very 
remarkable ;  he  had  a  hundred  of  them,  and  among  them 
one  in  his  seal  ring,  which  struck  the  hour.  The  clever 
mechanician  Gianello  Torreano  was  still  with  him  at  Yuste. 
Among  his  body  physicians  there  was  the  celebrated  Andrew 
Vesali,  a  native  of  Brussels,  who  before  that  had  been 
first  professor  of  anatomy  at  Padua,  and  had  there  published 
a  celebrated  work  on  anatomy,  with  drawings  from  nature,  in 
which  Titian  helped  him.  Besides  the  study  of  physical 
science,  Charles  was  fond  of  the  chase,  which  he  often 
followed  with  but  a  small  suite  of  not  more  than  eight 
or  ten  horses,  and  with  only  a  fowling-piece  in  his  hand. 
The  whole  sport  consisted  in  firing  his  musket  at  a  bird,  such 
as  a  crow  or  a  raven,  or  some  beast  of  the  forest,  a  stag  or  a 
wild  boar.  "  These  hunts,"  says  a  Venetian  ambassador, 
"  don't  cost  the  Emperor  a  hundred  scudi  a  year."  Besides 
this,  Charles  took  very  little  exercise.  In  his  earlier  years  he 
used  to  tilt  in  the  lists,  or  in  the  open  field,  to  run  at  a  quin- 
tain, take  part  in  the  bull-fights,  and  engage  in  all  the  sports 
of  the  manege  or  of  fencing.  Moreover,  Charles  in  his  leisure 
hours  amused  himself,  according  to  the  fashion  of  the  time, 
with  his  dwarfs.  The  Venetian  ambassador,  Bernardo  Nava- 
giero  states  in  1546,  that  the  King  of  Poland  had  made  him  a 
present  of  one  who  was  well  made  and  very  intelligent.  He 
also  found  much  diversion  in  the  conversation  of  his  jester 
Perico,  a  Spaniard,  at  whose  jokes  he  had  many  a  hearty 
laugh. 

Charles,  who  in  his  later  years  had  but  little  sleep,  liked 
to  rise  late  in  the  morning.  He  then  first  attended  a  private 
mass  for  the  soul  of  the  Empress,  and  immediately  afterwards 

VOL.    I  n 


l62  CHARLES    V. 

gave  audience  to  his  ministers,  to  which  he  also  admitted  his 
son  Philip  as  soon  as  the  Infant  had  emerged  from  boyhood. 
Audience  being  over,  Charles  heard  a  second  mass  for  his 
own  soul ;  at  the  conclusion  of  which  he  went  directly  to 
dinner,  the  rule  being  proverbial  at  the  court  of  the  Emperor 
"  della  messa  alia  mensa."  He  generally  dined  in  state,  but 
alone  at  his  table,  at  one  in  the  afternoon.  He  ate  much, 
and  was  fond  of  good  cheer,  preferring  highly  seasoned  dishes, 
which  were  the  cause  of  frequent  bilious  attacks.  His 
physicians  pretended  that  moisture  and  cold  prevailed  in  his 
constitution ;  for  which  reason  he  was  always  craving  for 
warmth,  being  fond  of  travelling  in  the  heat  of  summer,  and 
of  living  in  hot  rooms  in  winter.  This  may  also  account  for 
his  liking  all  those  things  that  would  drive  the  blood  to  the 
head  and  stimulate  the  nervous  system,  especially  hot  spices. 
He  indulged  very  freely  in  wine;  during  the  years  1530  to 
1532  his  former  confessor,  Garcia  de  Loaysa,  wrote  to  him, 
*'  that  it  would  be  better  for  the  general  good  if  he  would 
leave  off  drinking  in  the  middle  of  the  day ;  "  and  the  same 
warning  was  repeated  more  than  once.  The  Venetian  am- 
bassador Mocenigo  writes,  as  late  as  1547,  "The  Emperor  ate 
and  drank  so  much  that  everybody  was  amazed."  The 
physicians,  who  were  always  present  in  the  room  during 
his  dinner,  would  sometimes  remind  him  that  some  dish 
disagreed  with  him.  His  confessor  also  wrote  to  him  to 
*'  abstain  from  fish,  as  being  injurious  to  his  health."  But 
abstain  from  such  things  he  would  not ;  on  the  contrary,  he 
rather  preferred  the  heavier  meats,  such  as  were  the  most 
injurious  to  his  constitution,  red-herrings  and  other  salt  fish, 
and  salt  dishes.  "  Worst  of  all,"  says  Mocenigo,  *'  he  would 
not  properly  masticate  his  food,  but  he  devoured  it ;  which 
was  in  a  great  measure  owing  to  the  decayed  condition  of  his 
teeth." 

Sastrow,  who  saw  the  Emperor  at  the  Diet  of  Augsburg 
in  1546,  states,  in  his  Pomeranian  Chronicle  :  "  I  have  often 
seen  the  Emperor  dine  at  several  Diets,  at  Spires,  Worms, 
at  Spires  again,  at  Augsburg,  and  also  at  Brussels,  when  his 
brother  King  Ferdinand  was  present  likewise,  whom,  how- 


CHARLES    AT    DINNER  163 

ever,  he  never  allowed  to  sit  down  with  him.  And  although 
his  sister  (Mary  of  Burgundy),  his  sister's  daughter  (the 
widow  of  Duke  Francis  of  Lorraine),  his  brother,  with  his 
daughter  the  Duchess  of  Bavaria,  all  the  Electors,  and  so 
many  princes  were  there,  he  never  gave  a  banquet  nor  kept 
them  to  dinner.  When  they  were  waiting  for  his  coming 
from  church,  and  accompanied  him  to  the  hall  where  he  was 
going  to  dine,  he  shook  hands  with  them  one  after  the  other, 
left  them,  and  sat  down  alone  without  speaking.  The  dinner 
was  served  by  young  princes  and  counts,  four  courses  always, 
of  six  dishes  each.  The  dishes  being  placed  before  him  on 
the  table,  the  covers  were  removed,  and  he  shook  his  head  at 
those  of  which  he  did  not  wish  to  partake  ;  but  if  he  fancied 
one  he  nodded,  and  drew  it  towards  him.  Goodly  pasties, 
venison,  and  savoury  made-dishes  were  sometimes  taken 
away,  while  he  jcept  back  a  sucking  pig,  calfs  head,  or  such- 
like. He  had  no  one  to  carve  for  him,  nor  did  he  use  the 
knife  much  himself;  but  he  first  cut  his  bread  in  small 
pieces,  a  mouthful  each,  then  stuck  his  knife  into  the  joint 
just  where  he  fancied  a  piece,  scooped  it  out,  or  otherwise 
tore  it  with  his  fingers,  drew  the  plate  under  his  chin,  and 
thus  ate  in  a  very  unaffected  but  neat  and  cleanly  manner, 
so  that  it  was  pleasant  to  look  at  him.  When  he  wished  to 
drink — he  only  drank  three  times  at  a  meal — he  beckoned  to 
his  physicians,  who  were  standing  in  front  of  the  table  ;  they 
went  to  the  buffet,  on  which  stood  two  silver  flasks  and  a 
crystal  tankard,  which  held  as  much  as  one  pint  and  a  half; 
they  then  filled  the  glass  from  both  flasks;  after  which  he 
drained  it  to  the  last  drop,  even  if  he  had  to  draw  his  breath 
two  or  three  times  before  he  took  it  from  his  mouth.  He 
seldom,  however,  spoke  one  word ;  his  jesters  would  stand 
behind  him,  cutting  their  jokes,  but  he  did  not  much  mind 
them ;  sometimes,  when  they  said  something  particularly 
ridiculous,  a  half-smile  played  round  his  mouth.  He  had  fine 
vocal  and  instrumental  music,  though  it  would  have  sounded 
better  in  church  than  it  did  in  the  room.  The  dinner  lasted 
not  quite  an  hour;  after  which  everything  pertaining  to  it 
was  removed,  the  table  and  chair  folded  up  and  carried  out  of 

II— 2 


164  CHARLES     V. 

the  room,  so  that  only  the  four  walls  remained  ;  but  they 
were  everywhere  hung  with  the  most  costly  tapestry.  Grace 
being  said,  a  little  quill  was  handed  to  him,  with  which  he 
picked  his  teeth ;  he  then  washed  and  placed  himself  in  a 
corner  of  the  room  near  the  window,  where  everyone  might 
approach  him  to  present  petitions  or  state  their  case  by  word 
of  mouth." 

The  private  audiences  of  the  Emperor  used  to  last  two  or 
three  hours ;  he  then  rested  himself  for  one  hour  on  an  easy 
chair,  and  sent  again  for  the  ministers.  After  they  had  again 
withdrawn,  he  read  or  sat  down  to  write  letters.  At  seven  in 
the  evening,  Charles  took  a  sHght  collation  only  of  sweet 
meats  and  preserved  fruits.  This  arrangement  had  been 
kept  up  ever  since  his  twenty-fifth  year.  At  nine  o'clock  he 
retired  to  bed,  as  did  the  whole  of  his  court. 

The  Emperor's  melancholy  disposition,  which  he  proved 
among  other  things  by  carrying  his  cofiEin  with  him  in  all  his 
journeys,  his  excess  in  eating  and  drinking,  his  taking  little 
exercise,  besides  his  naturally  chilly  constitution,  caused  him 
to  be  nearly  always  ailing.  In  later  years  only,  he  kept 
stricter  diet  and  used  much  medicine.  "  The  Emperor," 
says  the  Venetian  ambassador  Cavalli  in  1550,  "would 
have  been  dead  long  since,  if  he  had  not  done  so."  He  was 
constantly  tormented  by  gout  and  by  spasms  in  the  chest. 
He  was  particularly  liable  to  catarrhal  affections,  and  often 
suffered  so  severely  from  asthma  that  he  dared  not  lie  down 
in  the  evening  to  sleep,  but  was  obliged  to  stand  upright  and 
keep  awake,  supporting  himself  on  a  table.  These  asthmatic 
sufferings  only  gave  way  to  the  attacks  of  gout  which,  ever 
since  his  forty-first  year,  returned  every  winter  regularly,  and 
would  also  harass  him  at  other  times.  This  broke  his 
strength ;  so  that  he  could  no  longer  mount  his  horse  nor 
follow  the  chase,  and  in  his  journeys  he  had  to  be  carried  in  a 
litter.  In  1549,  the  year  when  the  papal  crown  was  offered 
to  him,  he  is  described  as  creeping  through  his  room,  sup- 
ported by  his  staff,  with  bent  back,  snow-white  hair,  deadly 
pale,  and  with  beardless  Hps.  Yet  he  would  himself  smile  at 
his  infirm  appearance,  saying  that  he  was  not  quite  so  weak 


HIS     INFIRM     HEALTH  165 

as  he  looked.  He  used  to  say  of  the  gout,  "  Patience  and  a 
little  screaming  is  a  good  remedy  against  it."  Cavalli  states, 
in  1550:  "The  gout  sometimes  rises  to  his  head,  and  threatens 
some  day  to  kill  him  suddenly."  In  his  own  apartments  he 
often  trembled  at  the  least  noise.  Mocenigo  writes  of  him : 
"  The  Emperor,  which  perhaps  will  hardly  be  believed,  is, 
according  to  the  statements  of  his  household,  naturally  so 
nervous  that  he  is  often  frightened  when  perchance  a  spider 
comes  near  him,  and  even  trembles  as  on  the  day  when  the 
army  of  the  Protestants  drew  up  opposite  to  him  at  Ingolstadt. 
Yet,  notwithstanding  this,  his  reason  had  such  power  over  his 
natural  instinct  that  on  many  important  occasions,  and  in  the 
greatest  dangers,  he  showed  himself  as  brave  and  intrepid  as 
ever  prince  did  ;  and  especially  on  that  day  near  Ingolstadt  he 
was  seen,  after  the  first  emotion,  in  which  even  the  wisest 
cannot  altogether  get  the  mastery  over  nature,  at  once  to 
rouse  himself  and  put  on  his  armour ;  and,  whilst  the  enemy 
kept  up  a  galling  fire  upon  us  from  their  heavy  guns,  he  rode 
to  and  fro,  arraying  his  army  in  order  of  battle,  and  making 
every  arrangement  for  defence.  Charles  remained  with  his 
troops  the  whole  day,  and  did  so  the  three  following  days, 
without  showing  the  least  fear.  Granvella,  who  had  remained 
behind  in  the  town  on  account  of  indisposition,  sent  word  to 
his  Majesty  by  the  confessor  that  an  Emperor  needed  greater 
prudence,  but  less  bravery  ;  but  Charles  answered  that  no 
King  or  Emperor  had  ever  been  killed  by  a  cannon  ball.  If  he  was  to 
be  the  first,  it  would  be  better  for  him  to  die  than  to  live" 

The  Venetian  ambassador,  in  the  same  report,  extols  the 
Emperor's  kindness  and  forbearance  in  times  of  peace,  but 
remarks  that  in  war  he  had  shown  himself  very  cruel.  He 
mentions  that  Charles,  at  the  revolt  of  Ghent,  caused  a  great 
number  of  the  principal  citizens  to  be  executed  ;  and  that  also 
in  the  battle  of  Mühlberg  the  Saxon  soldiers  were  by  his 
order  put  to  the  sword,  even  after  having  thrown  away  their 
arms  and  entreated  for  their  lives. 

Sastrow,  in  his  *'  Chronicle,"  relates  a  fact  which  does  not 
speak  much  for  the  kindness  of  Charles.  The  Emperor 
caused  cannon  which  had  been  cast  at  Augsburg  and  Ulm  to 


l66  CHARLES    V. 

be  driven  by  Swabian  carriers  to  the  Netherlands.  This  was 
in  the  year  1543,  when  he  made  war  against  the  Duke  of 
JuHers  and  Cleves  for  the  possession  of  the  country  of 
Guelders.  The  roads  being  bad,  the  carriers  were  not  able 
to  proceed  very  quickly,  and  the  Emperor  was  in  a  great 
hurry  to  fall  in  with  the  enemy.  He  therefore  rode  up  to  one 
of  the  drivers  to  urge  him  to  speed ;  and  when  the  man,  not 
knowing  the  Emperor,  looked  cross  and  disregarded  the 
order,  Charles  struck  him  with  a  stick  on  the  nape  of  his 
neck.  The  carrier  at  once  retorted  on  his  Cesarean  Majesty 
by  giving  him  a  cut  of  his  whip  over  his  head,  and  by  a  curse, 
"  May  God's  element  confound  you,  you  Spanish  ruffian." 
The  Emperor  gave  the  order  to  take  him  away  at  once  and 
hang  him  to  the  nearest  tree.  The  officers,  however,  put  off 
the  execution  until  the  first  heat  of  his  anger  was  over ;  and 
when  Charles  thought  the  order  had  long  been  carried  out, 
they  implored  pardon  for  the  man  on  their  knees.  On  this 
the  Emperor  mitigated  the  punishment  of  the  carrier  to  the 
effect  that  he  should  only  have  his  nose  cut  off,  in  token  of 
his  having  sworn  at  the  Emperor  of  the  Romans  and  struck 
him.  The  poor  carrier  even  expressed  his  thanks  for  the 
punishment.  The  "  Carolina,"  the  criminal  code  which 
Charles  gave  to  the  German  Empire  in  1533,  is  likewise 
a  very  indifferent  monument  of  his  forbearance.  Cutting  out 
the  tongue,  cutting  off  ears,  and  tearing  the  flesh  with  hot 
pincers  are  mentioned  in  its  notorious  198th  article  as  mere 
additions  of  punishment. 

For  the  slanderers  at  his  court  Charles  devised  a  punish- 
ment of  truly  Tartar  character.  They  had  to  muster  every 
morning  and  for  several  hours  to  crawl  on  all  fours  and  bark 
like  dogs.  This,  however,  lasted  only  a  short  time,  as  his 
councillors  represented  that  the  noise  of  the  barking  drove 
every  serious  thought  out  of  their  heads  for  the  greater  part 
of  the  forenoon,  so  that  it  was  impossible  for  them  to  get  on 
with  their  hard  work. 

"  In  money  matters  his  Majesty  is  exceedingly  careful ; 
and,  although  he  cheerfully  consents  to  any,  even  the  heaviest 
expense,  where  it  is  necessary,  yet  he  cannot  bear  that  one 


HIS    THRIFTINESS  167 

ducat  of  his  money  should  be  spent  uselessly.  He  keeps  a 
very  small  court,  considering  his  being  such  a  great  Em- 
peror. The  usual  service  of  his  person  and  of  his  table  do  not 
cost  him  more  than  120,000  scudi.^  Contrary  to  his  former 
custom,  he  very  rarely  now  has  new  suits  made  for  his  pages, 
so  that  their  clothes  are  nearly  always  torn  ;  and  even  on  his 
own  dress  the  Emperor  spends  less  than  any  nobleman  of 
high  rank  would  do.  He  says  *  that  one  must  be  a  fool  to 
pay  more  than  200  scudi  for  a  lining  of  fur.'  He  remembers 
even  his  smallest  article  of  dress,  and  notices  if  one  of  his 
shirts  or  a  handkerchief  is  missing.  He  also  sometimes  has 
his  clothes  mended.  He  is  said  to  act  in  this  way  not  for  the 
purpose  of  keeping  down  his  own  expenditure,  but  in  order 
that  his  courtiers,  who  are  always  prone  to  imitate  him,  may 
not  have  occasion  to  run  into  extravagance  ;  for  this  reason 
the  Emperor  in  the  German  wars  wore  suits  of  fustian  which 
were  not  worth  a  scudo,  and  a  woollen  hat  which  did  not  cost 
more  than  a  marcello;  all  the  great  lords  of  his  court  then 
dressed  like  him." 

All  these  statements  of  the  Venetian  ambassador  con- 
cerning the  frugality  of  Charles  with,  regard  to  dress  are 
founded  on  fact ;  it  is  even  recorded  that  once,  at  a  review 
near  Naumburg  in  1547,  when  it  began  to  rain,  the  Emperor 
took  off  his  velvet  cap  and  put  it  under  his  cloak. 

An  eye-witness  who  saw  Charles  on  that  occasion  at 
Naumburg  describes  his  appearance  as  follows:^  "I  had  pic- 
tured to  myself  this  great  Emperor  very  differently.  At  his 
entry  into  Naumburg  (21st  of  June,  1547),  scarcely  anyone 
was  able,  for  the  number  of  captains  who  pressed  round  his 
Majesty,  to  get  a  sight  of  him  ;  but  when  he  alighted  at  his 
quarters  I  saw  him — a  tall,  somewhat  stout,  grave  personage. 
He  wore  a  black  velvet  cap  and  a  red  Spanish  cloak  coming 
down  to  the  knees,  yellow  hose,  half-boots,  and  a  blue  doublet, 
long  moustaches,  and  beard  on  the  chin.  He  looked  cautiously 
round  him  before  he  went  in.     The  Duke  Maurice,  who  fol- 

*  About  /'24,ooo.     Scudo  (pi.  scudi),  about  4s. 

2  Report  of  the  Clerk  of  Canals,  Schirmer,  in  the  "  Materials  for  Saxon 
History."    Altenburg,  1791,  No.  i.,  p.  34. 


l68  CHARLES     V. 

lowed  him,  was  a  tall  and  spare  man,  with  keen,  sparkling 
eyes  ;  the  Emperor's,  on  the  contrary,  were  languid."    On  the 
22nd  of  June  the  Emperor  visited  Alba's  camp  outside  the 
town.    "  This  time  he  wore  a  black  doublet  and  a  large  white 
Spanish  ruff.     His  jerkin  and  hose  were  likewise  black ;  his 
head  was  covered  with  a  round  plumed  hat,  on  account  of 
the  heat  of  the  sun  ;   he  was  mounted  on  a  very  fine  black 
charger,   with  rich  black  velvet  housings  embroidered  with 
gold ;  and  was  surrounded  by  many  princes,  counts,  and  lords, 
several  hundreds  in  number."     On  the  23rd  of  June,  the  army 
marched  out  from  Naumburg ;    which  lasted  from  half-past 
five  in  the  morning  to  one  o'clock  in  the  afternoon :   "  The 
Emperor  was  on  horseback,  dressed  as  on  the  day  before, 
except  that  he  wore  no  hat,  but  again  his  new  black  velvet 
cap,  and  a  Spanish  cloak.    As  it  began  to  rain  a  Httle,  Charles 
took  off  his  velvet  cap  and  put  it  under  his  cloak ;  so  that  the 
rain  fell  on  his  bare  head,  the  hair  of  which  was  of  a  chestnut 
brown ;  whereat  everyone  was  very  much  astonished.     Poor 
Emperor !  who  had  done  such  great  deeds  in  the  world,  who 
had  made  war  on  Africa,  and  was  the  possessor  of  so  many 
tons  of  gold,  and  who  let  the  rain  fall  on  his  uncovered  head! " 
There  was   evidently  in    this    most    potent    Emperor  a 
drop  left  of  the  blood  of  his   ancestor,   Rodolph  of  Habs- 
burg,  who  mended  his  clothes  with  his  own  hands.    Yet  it  is 
just  as  true  that  Charles  did  not  know  how  to  manage  finances 
on  a  large  scale.     The  Venetian,  Marino  Cavalli,  writes  in 
1550 :  "  There  is  a  saying  that,  up  to  ten  scudi,  no  one  in  the 
world  spends  money  better  than  the  Emperor ;  but  as  to  large 
expenses,  matters  go  on  at  his  court  just  in  the  same  way  as 
with  other  princes."      He  was  nearly  always  in  straits  and 
obliged  to  contract  debts.     He  was  far  from  being  displeased 
when,  in  1530,  his  host,  Anthony  Fugger,  at  Augsburg,  re- 
kindled the  fire  which  was  getting  low  by  feeding  it  with  the 
old  bonds  of  the  Emperor ;   and  yet  twenty-two  years  after- 
wards the  credit  of  Charles  was  at  such  a  low  ebb  that  no 
Augsburg  firm,  not  even  Anthony  Fugger,  whom  he  had  so 
much  honoured,  would  lend  him  money  any  longer. 

In  political  affairs  the  Emperor  was,  among  the  many  wise 


GERMAN     "THE     LANGUAGE     OF     HORSES "  169 

and  clever  people  at  his  court,  the  wisest  and  most  clever. 
All  business  was  carried  on  in  his  writing,  and  every  argument 
for  and  against  duly  weighed.  The  ministers  put  questions 
to  the  Emperor,  who,  on  his  side,  ruminated  over  them 
cautiously  and  deliberately  in  the  quietude  of  his  cabinet,  and 
then  gave  his  decision,  with  "Yes"  or  "No,"  and  sometimes 
with  remarks  written  on  the  margin.  As  a  rule,  everything 
was  treated  in  writing.  In  some  cases  Charles  would  call  in 
parties  for  personal  conferences.  The  written  marginal  re- 
marks were  very  laconic,  bearing  the  stamp  of  the  monarch, 
who  wrote  them  or  caused  them  to  be  written,  and  who  was 
always  most  chary  of  his  words.  In  the  State  papers  of 
the  Emperor,  published  by  Dr.  Lanz,  from  the  archives  of 
Brussels,  such  brief  rescripts  occur  generally  in  forms  like  the 
following:  "Bien!"  "Que  fait  tres  bien."  "Qui  se  face 
(fasse)."  "  Fiat."  "  En  soit  escript."  "  L'Empereur  y  ad- 
visera."  "  Sa  Maj.  I'a  ä  plasir."  "  Cela  ira  bien."  The  sig- 
nature of  Charles  was  very  different  from  that  of  his  grand- 
father ;  that  of  Maximilian  being  small  and  cramped,  that  of 
Charles  with  large  and  tall  perpendicular  letters,  although 
with  some  similarity  to  the  proud  slanting  characters  used  by 
the  French  Bourbons  after  him.  The  signatures  of  Charles  V. 
and  Henri  IV.  are  the  largest  of  all  those  of  the  princes  of 
the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries.  Charles,  when  in 
Germany,  always  signed  "  Carolus." 

Charles  won  over  the  Flemings  and  Burgundians  by  his 
affability  and  condescension,  the  Spaniards  by  grandeur  and 
gravity,  and  the  Italians  by  cleverness  and  ingenuity ;  yet  he, 
the  German  Emperor,  seems  to  have  been  least  able  to  under- 
stand the  German  way  of  feeling  and  thinking.  He  is  also 
well  known  to  have  loathed  the  German  language.  He  called 
it  "  the  language  of  horses."  After  being  deserted  by  Maurice 
of  Saxony,  whom  of  all  Germans  he  had  esteemed  most,  he 
hated  to  have  anything  to  do  with  German  affairs,  and  left 
them  entirely  to  his  brother  Ferdinand.  It  is  true  that,  on  the 
whole,  he  had  a  great  aversion  to  any  sort  of  work  during  the 
last  six  years  of  his  reign,  which  he  passed  in  the  Netherlands. 
He  would  still  give  audiences,  but  only  as  it  were  by  way  of 


170  CHARLES    V. 

recreation  for  some  hours  after  dinner.  The  Bishop  of  Arras, 
Granvella,  who  then  completely  ruled  him,  gave  the  decision. 
At  last  Charles  retired  entirely  from  the  affairs  of  government, 
and  would  not  sometimes  for  months  see  anybody.  No  one 
was  admitted  to  him  but  those  whom  he  expressly  sent  for. 
He  was  averse  even  to  signing  his  name.  Once  they  had  to 
wait  nine  months  for  his  signature,  and  the  mere  opening  of  a 
letter  caused  him  pain  in  his  hands.  Alone  in  his  room,  which 
was  hung  with  black  and  lighted  by  seven  tapers,  he  re- 
mained for  hours  on  his  knees.  After  the  death  of  his  mother 
in  1555,  he  sometimes  fancied  he  heard  her  voice  calling  to 
him  to  follow  her. 

Charles  spoke  every  one  of  the  languages  of  his  several 
European  kingdoms.  He  used  to  say,  '*  As  many  languages 
as  a  man  understands,  so  many  times  is  he  a  man."  French 
was  the  one  in  which  he  generally  wrote  and  negotiated.  It 
became  under  him  the  language  of  the  court,  because  in  it  the 
many  strangers  who  met  there  were  best  able  to  carry  on  their 
conversation.  Since  Charles  a  medley  of  tongues  began  in 
Germany,  by  which  the  native  idiom  was  interlarded  with 
French  flourishes  and  Hispano-Italian  bombast. 

In  the  conduct  of  business  Charles  was  deliberate  and 
cautious,  calm  and  patient  in  the  most  eminent  degree.  He 
spoke  little.  When  he  did  so,  he  generally  looked  fixedly 
before  him,  or  cast  his  eyes  upwards.  Long  speeches  always 
annoyed  him.  His  usual  remark  was,  "  Cut  it  short,"  and 
his  usual  answer,  "  We'll  consider  about  it."  Obstinate  he 
was  too.  The  pressing  entreaties  with  which  the  Electors 
Maurice  and  Joachim,  at  Halle,  urged  Charles  to  liberate  the 
Landgrave  Philip,  had  the  very  contrary  effect  of  making  the 
Emperor  keep  him  a  prisoner  longer  than  he  had  perhaps  at 
first  intended.  Charles  once  said  to  the  Venetian  ambassador 
Contarini,  "  It  is  my  nature  to  insist  obstinately  upon  my  own 
opinions."  The  ambassador  replied,  "  Sire,  to  insist  on  good 
opinions  is  firmness,  not  obstinacy."  Charles  then  concluded 
the  conversation  with  the  characteristic  words,  "  Qualche  fiats 
to  sono  fermo  in  le  catiive  "  ("I  sometimes  also  insist  upon  bad 
ones"). 


HIS    AFFECTION     FOR     HIS     SON  lyi 

Charles  was  excessively  scrupulous ;  he  made  everything 
a  case  of  conscience.  His  confessor  therefore  played  a  very 
important  part.  Cardinal  Granvella  complained  that  if  one 
thought  one  had  arrived  at  a  result  with  him,  the  hydra  of 
religious  scruples  would  always  start  new  heads.  The  settle- 
ment of  religious  differences,  at  the  last  Diet  at  Augsburg, 
1555,  Charles  left  to  his  brother,  merely  because  he  had  him- 
self strong  scruples  against  it.  Within  twelve  days  of  his 
death  he  most  strongly  advised  his  son  Philip,  by  a  codicil 
appended  to  his  last  will,  to  crush  heresy  in  its  bud. 

Charles  V.,  "  The  Lord,"  as  he  was  called  in  his  own 
court,  was  the  last  German  Emperor  who  understood  how  to 
assert  the  European  supremacy  of  the  imperial  dignity.  His 
successors,  with  perhaps  the  sole  exception  of  Ferdinand  H., 
were  far  inferior  to  him  in  political  greatness ;  they  partook 
more  of  the  character  of  territorial  rulers,  lords  of  Austria. 

"  A  complete  history  of  the  life  and  reign  of  Charles  has 
not  yet  been  written,  and  is  exceedingly  difficult  to  write. 
The  preliminary  studies  and  the  collecting  of  materials  alone 
must  occupy  more  than  twenty  years.  It  would  be  necessary 
personally  to  examine  the  documents  at  Vienna,  at  Brussels, 
at  Mechlin,  at  Milan,  at  Naples,  and  Madrid — if  possible,  also 
in  Rome.  Many  a  man  who  with  sincere  earnestness  entered 
upon  this  preliminary  task,  was  paralysed  by  it,  crushed  by  the 
avalanche  of  the  materials.''  It  is  Hormayr  who  says  this.  He 
spent  twenty  years,  from  1807  to  1827,  in  collecting  the 
materials  for  a  work  which  he  intended  to  call,  "  Maxi- 
miHan  I.  and  Charles  V. ;  their  Heroes  and  their  Times  " ; 
but  it  was  beyond  his  power  to  complete  it. 

10. — The  family  of  Charles   V. 

Charles  had  an  only  son,  Don  Phihp.  He  loved  him 
most  affectionately ;  it  was  for  his  sake  alone  that  at  last 
he  entangled  himself  in  the  ruinous  net  from  which  he  saw 
no  honourable  escape  but  by  his  abdication.  The  attempts 
of  Charles  to  procure  for  Philip  the  succession  in  Germany 
estranged  all  hearts  from  the  old  Emperor,  and  even  arrayed 


172  CHARLES    V. 

his  own  family  against  him.  And  yet  he  had  to  experience 
the  most  gaUing  ingratitude  from  his  beloved  Philip. 

To  pave  his  way  for  his  marriage  with  Mary  of  England, 
Charles  ceded  to  him  the  independent  rule  of  the  two  Sicilies. 
This  resignation  was  scarcely  effected  when  Philip,  dis- 
missing the  faithful  servants  of  the  Emperor,  appointed  his 
own  creatures  in  their  places.  To  meet  his  designs  on  Sienna, 
the  Emperor  nominated  him  his  vicar  in  Italy.  Philip  did 
not  even  assume  the  title.  Charles  thereupon  summoned 
him  to  Brussels  to  concert  with  him  important  measures 
against  [France.  Philip  then  despatched  the  Portuguese  Ruy 
Gomez,  Count  de  Silva,  his  favourite,  with  whose  witty  sallies 
he  used  to  beguile  his  time.  The  message  to  his  father  was 
to  the  purport  that  he,  Don  Philip,  as  the  autocrat  of 
powerful  kingdoms,  could  not  come  to  him  until  it  was 
clearly  settled  what  etiquette  the  Emperor  would  observe 
with  regard  to  him,  and  how  in  general  he  intended  to  treat 
him. 

As  Charles  would  now  have  been  obliged  to  give  to  his 
enemies  the  welcome  spectacle  of  a  domestic  quarrel  by 
coming  to  a  public  rupture  with  his  ungrateful  son,  he  pre- 
ferred to  lay  the  crowns  which  had  long  been  a  burden  to 
him  in  the  hands  which  were  so  eager  to  grasp  them. 

Even  more  dearly  than  his  ungrateful  son,  Charles  loved 
his  grandson  Carlos,  who  at  that  time  gave  the  fairest 
promise,  but  who  at  an  early  age  already  showed  occasionally 
that  fierce  obstinacy  which  afterwards  brought  his  life  to  such 
a  tragic  termination. 

Young  Carlos  continually  urged  his  grandfather  to  send 
him  arms,  but  at  once  gave  signs  of  impatience  when  the 
Emperor  made  him  stand  before  him  somewhat  longer  than 
usual  with  his  cap  in  his  hand.  Being  informed  that  in  his 
father's  marriage-contract  with  the  English  Queen,  the 
Netherlands  were  eventually  settled  on  a  son  of  Philip  by 
her,  Carlos  declared  to  the  Emperor  that,  if  this  were  true, 
he  would  not  allow  it,  but  rather  take  up  arms  against  his 
father.  He  would  never  call  Philip  "  Father,"  but  reserved 
this  name  for  the  Emperor  alone.     Those  of  the  grandees  for 


YOUNG     DON     CARLOS  I 73 

whom  he  had  a  liking  he  caused  to  take  an  oath  that  they 
would  follow  him  in  all  his  wars.  Onorato  Giovanni,  the 
tutor  of  Carlos,  collected  all  his  ingenious  and  witty  sayings 
in  a  little  volume,  which  he  dedicated  to  the  Emperor.  Yet  it 
was  scarcely  a  judicious  measure  to  keep  the  boy  to  a  constant 
study  of  Cicero's  book,  "  De  Officiis,"  in  order  to  subdue  his 
fiery  temper. 

On  the  I2th  of  April,  1555,  the  mother  of  Charles,  the 
melancholy  Dofia  Juana,  died  at  Tordesillas.  This  death 
matured  his  determination  to  abdicate.  During  the  autumn 
of  the  same  year  Philip  came  from  England  to  Brussels  by 
invitation  of  the  Emperor,  who,  from  the  love  which  he  bore 
to  his  grandson  Carlos,  forgot  his  grudge  against  his  son 
Philip,  and  was  ready  to  resign  to  him  the  crowns  of  the 
Netherlands  and  of  Spain.  It  was  about  this  time  that  the 
Emperor,  previous  to  his  abdication,  related  to  Don  Carlos, 
then  a  boy  of  twelve  years,  the  history  of  his  whole  life, 
never  wearying  of  answering  the  numberless  questions  of  the 
prince.  When  the  Emperor  came  to  speak  of  his  flight  from 
Innsbruck,  Carlos  called  out,  "  For  shame !  I  would  not 
have  fled."  The  Emperor  once  more  described  to  him  the 
entire  want  of  every  means  of  resistance ;  but  Carlos  stuck 
to  it,  "  I  would  not  have  fled."  "  And  if,"  the  Emperor  said, 
with  a  smile,  **  the  whole  of  your  pages  conspired  to  surprise 
you,  and  make  you  prisoner  ?  "  The  Infant  angrily  replied, 
•'  What  are  you  talking  about  ?  I  would  never  fly  under  any 
circumstances." 

Besides  Don  Philip  Charles  left  by  his  wife  Isabella  of 
Portugal  two  princesses.  One,  Joanna,  was  married  in  1553 
to  the  Infant  John  of  Portugal,  who  died  in  the  following 
year.  Her  son  was  the  unfortunate  King  Sebastian,  who  in 
1578  was  killed  near  Alcassar  in  the  expedition  against 
Morocco.  Joanna  became  regent  in  Spain  until  the  arrival  of 
Philip  in  1559,  and  died  in  the  same  year  as  her  son,  1578. 
The  second  princess  was  Maria,  married  in  1548,  at  the  age 
of  twenty,  to  her  cousin,  who  was  afterwards  Maximilian  II., 
Emperor  of  Germany,  She  was  the  favourite  child  of  her 
father,  and  the  most  pious  lady  of  her  time. 


174  CHARLES    V. 

Of  the  natural  children  of  Charles  V.,  I  have  before  men- 
tioned the  brave,  ingenious,  and  agreeable  Don  Juan  d' Austria. 
He  died  of  poison  in  1578,  not  having  completed  his  thirty- 
third  year.  His  heart  was  found  to  be  quite  dried  up  and  his 
skin  as  if  singed  with  fire.  His  brother  Philip  had  been 
informed  that  he  was  in  correspondence  with  the  captive 
Mary  Stuart,  and  that  he  plotted  with  the  Guises  to  secure 
for  himself  the  independent  rule  of  some  kingdom  or  other. 
His  motto  was,  "  He  who  does  not  try  to  go  forward  goes 
backward." 

Charles  had  also  a  natural  daughter  by  a  Flemish  lady, 
Margaret  Vomgeest,  who  afterwards  married  John  Vanden- 
dick.  This  was  the  masculine,  shrewd  Margaret  of  Parma, 
who,  at  the  age  of  thirteen,  in  1535,  was  married  to  Alexander 
Medicis,  duke  of  Florence,  and  in  1538,  one  year  after  his 
murder,  to  Ottavio  Farnese,  duke  of  Parma,  to  whom  she 
bore  a  son,  afterwards  the  great  General  Alexander  Farnese. 
From  1559  to  1567  she  was,  as  regent  of  the  Low  Countries, 
at  Brussels  ;  after  which  she  received  from  her  brother  King 
Philip  the  beautifully  situated  lordship  of  Aquila  in  Naples, 
and  died  in  retirement  at  the  age  of  sixty-four,  in  1586,  at 
Artona  a  Mare,  an  estate  of  the  Farneses  at  Naples.  This 
lady  was  remarkable  for  four  qualities,  which  are  generally 
considered  as  attributes  of  the  stronger  sex.  In  the  first 
place,  her  masculine  power  of  judgment ;  secondly,  the  gout ; 
thirdly,  her  fondness  for  hunting ;  and  fourthly,  the  very 
unladylike  ornament  of  a  moustache. 

The  court  of  Charles  V.  was  the  most  numerous  and 
brilliant  which  had  ever  been  seen  in  Western  Christendom. 
The  flower  of  four  great,  rich,  and  powerful  countries,  of 
Burgundy  and  the  Netherlands,  of  Spain,  Italy,  and  Ger- 
many, combined  to  form  it.  The  young  Emperor  arrived  at 
the  Diet  of  Worms  in  1521  with  a  retinue  of  not  less  than 
2,700  horses ;  yet,  when  the  laurels  of  a  succession  of  the 
most  brilHant  victories  were  heaped  upon  him,  he  began  to 
contract  his  household. 

It  is  one  of  the  principal  characteristics  of  great  men  that 
they  know  how  to  assemble  other  men  of  genius  around  them. 


HIS  FAMILY  AGAINST  HIM  I75 

As  the  iron  follows  the  magnet,  thus  great  captains  and 
statesmen  will  crowd  about  really  great  princes.  Charles 
was  no  exception  to  that  rule.  A  number  of  the  most  able 
generals  served  him  in  the  field,  and  the  most  accomplished 
diplomatists  in  his  cabinet  and  at  foreign  courts. 

Diplomacy  already  played  a  very  important  part  under 
Charles  V.  The  Granvellas  formed  a  nursery  of  diplomatists 
who  were  equal  to  the  celebrated  Venetian  politicians.  Charles 
knew  as  well  as  anyone  the  secret,  which  has  almost  become 
a  truism,  that  prudence  carries  the  day  against  bravery ;  only 
he  was  too  prudent.  As  far  as  foreign  policy  went,  he  con- 
ducted his  business  in  a  most  masterly  style,  and  attained 
nearly  all  his  objects  ;  but  he  was  caught  in  his  own  snares, 
in  his  family  policy — it  was  his  own  house  which  brought  him 
down.^ 

1  Appendix  C  contains  samples  of  the  style  and  courtesy  of  the 
Emperor's  private  and  diplomatic  correspondence,  and  of  his  State 
papers. 


176  FERDINAND    1. 


CHAPTER   III 

Ferdinand  I. — (1556- 1564). 

7. — Personal  notice  of  the  Empevov, 

After  the  resignation  of  the  German  crown  by  Charles  V., 
his  brother  Ferdinand  I.  was  acknowledged  as  Emperor.  He 
was  born  at  Alcala  de  Henarez,  in  Spain,  in  1503,  and  re- 
mained until  his  eighteenth  year  in  that  country,  at  the  court 
of  his  grandfather,  Ferdinand  the  Catholic,  who,  according  to 
the  custom  of  that  time,  frequently  changed  his  residence 
from  one  town  to  another.  Two  Spaniards,  Don  Pedro 
Nunnez  de  Guzman,  Idng-at-arms  of  the  Order  of  Alcantara, 
and  Osorio,  bishop  of  Asturias,  superintended  Ferdinand's 
education,  according  to  the  directions  of  the  celebrated 
Erasmus  of  Rotterdam.  When  Charles  in  1515  came  as 
king  to  Spain,  he  sent  his  brother  to  Brussels,  and  Ferdinand 
never  saw  Spain  again. 

In  1 52 1  Ferdinand  married  Anne  Jagellon  at  Linz,  both 
being  in  their  nineteenth  year.  In  1526  he  obtained  the  two 
Jagellon  crowns  of  Hungary  and  Bohemia.  In  1530  Charles 
also  gave  up  to  him  the  archduchy  of  Austria  and  the  other 
family  possessions  of  Habsburg.  In  1531  he  became  King 
of  the  Romans,  After  the  abdication  of  his  brother,  he 
styled  himself  Roman  Emperor  Elect ;  for,  as  the  Pope 
would  not  acknowledge  the  validity  of  the  abdication,  "  hc- 
cause  the  Roman  see  had  not  been  asked  for  its  consent,'"  Ferdinand 
did  not  cause  himself  to  be  crowned ;  nor  has  any  German 
Emperor  since  Charles  V.  allowed  himself  to  be  crowned  by 
the  Pope. 

Ferdinand  was  a  Spaniard,  like  his  brother,  and  yet  he 
was  very  different   from   him  ;   in   many  respects  his  very 


HIS     CHARACTER  I77 

opposite.  Charles  was  grave,  taciturn,  sedate,  and  always 
ailing ;  Ferdinand  was  ardent  as  the  sun  of  Castile,  gay,  ex- 
ceedingly communicative,  disdaining  neither  the  pleasures  of 
conviviality  nor  the  relaxation  of  music  and  dancing,  and  he 
enjoyed  the  most  robust  health.  We  have  a  *•  Relation  "  of 
the  Venetian  ambassador,  Navagiero,  of  the  year  1547, 
which  must  be  received  with  circumspection,  to  be  under- 
stood as  it  is  meant : 

"  The  King  Ferdinand  is  at  present  in  his  forty-fifth  year. 
His  figure  is  rather  small ;  his  face  thin  ;  his  hair,  which  is 
standing  out,  inclines  to  red ;  his  forehead  is  of  middling 
height ;  his  eyebrows  thick  and  arched ;  his  eyes  not  very 
dark,  but  fine  and  sparkling ;  his  nose  large,  somewhat 
aquiline  ;  his  lips  thick  and  protruding.  Since  the  death  of 
the  Queen  he  has  allowed  his  beard  to  grow,  which  is  now 
long  and  reddish,  like  the  hair  of  his  head.  He  also  wears 
large  whiskers,  which  are  of  a  somewhat  lighter  colour.  His 
neck  is  long  and  thick,  but  the  rest  of  his  body  is  rather  thin. 
Examined  individually,  all  his  features  are  ungainly  [hnitti)  ; 
but  whoever  approaches  the  King  is,  on  the  whole,  impressed 
with  his  kingly  appearance,  and,  from  the  spirited  expression 
of  his  eyes  and  the  energy  of  his  mind  and  language,  recognises 
in  him  a  man  who  is  worth  looking  at.  He  never  had  an  illness 
of  any  consequence.  For  many  years  he  has  lived  most 
regularly  and  methodically.  He  keeps  open  table  only  four 
times  a  week,  in  the  evening,  and  always  rises  early  ;  so  that 
whoever,  in  winter,  wants  to  accompany  his  Majesty  to  mass 
(as  I  always  did  on  holidays)  had  to  make  his  appearance  at 
the  palace  at  least  one  hour  before  daybreak.  He  is  in- 
defatigable in  taking  exercise.  From  rising  in  the  morning 
to  going  to  bed  in  the  evening  he  only  sits  down  to  take  his 
meals.  All  the  rest  of  the  time  he  is  on  his  legs,  either  stand- 
ing or  walking,  in  business,  in  promenades,  and  in  the  chase. 
He  seems  likely  to  be  destined  for  long  life.  Queen  Anne 
was  of  distinguished  beauty  in  mind  and  body.  She  loved  the 
King  as  dearly  as  he  did  her  in  return ;  so  that  all  the  twenty- 
six  years  which  they  spent  together  (she  died  in  childbed  on 
the  27th  of  January,  1547,  at  Prague)  their  marriage  was  the 
VOL.  I  la 


178  FERDINAND     I. 

very  model  of  a  happy  union.  She  bore  to  the  King  fifteen 
children,  of  whom  twelve  are  alive — three  sons  and  nine 
daughters — all  of  them  very  handsome. 

"  The  court  of  his  Majesty  would  be  very  royal  and  nume- 
rous if  all  the  servants  whom  the  King  pays  were  assembled 
in  one  establishment.  But  the  King  has  his  own  servants  ;  so 
has  his  eldest  son,  Maximilian  "  (afterwards  Emperor),  "  and 
his  second  son,  Ferdinand,  and  likewise  the  other  princes  and 
princesses  who  are  at  Innsbruck.  For  several  years  past  the 
King  has  kept  court  together  with  only  one  of  his  sons  ;  and 
since  the  death  of  his  Queen  he  has  reduced  his  household 
still  more. 

"  The  King,"  continues  Navagiero,  "  is  of  sound  and 
penetrating  judgment ;  he  also  speaks  the  Spanish,  French, 
German,  Italian,  and  Latin  languages  very  fairly."  "  In 
Latin,"  the  learned  scholar  Busbeck  says,  '*  Ferdinand  some- 
times sins  against  Priscian,"  of  which  ample  proofs  are 
afforded  by  the  letters  of  his  which  have  been  preserved. 
According  to  Dolce,  he  was  fond  of  reading  Roman  and  Greek 
history,  especially  Caesar's  Commentaries.  He  often  urged 
his  brother  to  give  him  a  command  in  the  Italian  wars,  and 
"  not  to  allow  him  to  dawdle  about  the  stoves  (firesides)  of 
Germany."  But  Charles  remained  deaf  to  his  requests. 
*'  The  King,"  writes  Navagiero,  "  is  an  excellent  man  of 
business  {gran  negociante),  doing  everything  himself.  No 
ambassador  or  anyone  else  can  transact  business  except  with 
his  Majesty  himself;  and  if  a  citizen  wishes  to  present  a 
petition  it  is  his  Majesty's  pleasure  always  to  receive  it 
himself ;  and  if  a  poor  man  wants  to  address  him  w^iilst  he  is 
going  to  mass  or  to  table,  the  King  stops,  listens  to  him,  and 
then  disposes  of  his  cause  according  as  he  thinks  best.  Yet 
this  meddling  with  everything  in  most  cases  occasions  great 
delay.  His  Majesty  is  very  religious  ;  attends  mass  every 
day,  and  on  great  holidays  hears  one  or  two  sermons ;  he 
receives  the  sacrament,  two,  three,  or  four  times  a  year.  He 
is  very  temperate,  and  it  is  believed  of  him  that  he  was  ever 
faithful  to  his  wife,  and  that  his  life  both  before  marriage  and 
after  the  death   of  his   wife   was   perfectly  chaste.     He  is 


HIS     CHARACTER  I 79 

liberal ;  which  is  sufficiently  proved  by  the  condition  of  his 
servants,  who  are  most  of  them  rich,  whilst  he  is  poor. 
Magnanimous  I  do  not  think  him  to  be,  one  of  the  principal 
characteristics  of  that  virtue  being  the  forgetting  of  received 
injuries  ;  but  if  any  prince  offends  his  Majesty  he  never  forgets 
it,  and  it  is  my  firm  belief  he  would  revenge  it."  The  truth  of 
this  last  feature  is  evidenced  by  the  fact  alluded  to  before,  of 
Ferdinand's  having  so  earnestly  virged  the  carrying  out  of  the 
sentence  of  death  on  the  Elector  of  Saxony  in  the  camp 
before  Wittenberg ;  and  also  by  the  cruel  instructions  given 
by  him  in  the  Peasants'  War  to  Truchsess  of  Waldburg. 

Sastrow  saw  King  Ferdinand  at  the  same  period  from 
which  this  Venetian  report  dates ;  that  is  to  say,  at  the  Diet 
of  Augsburg,  in  1547  and  1548,  which  he  attended  as  one  of 
the  delegates  of  Pomerania.  He  says,  in  his  quaint  chronicle, 
"  This  was  not  only  a  cuirassed,  but  also  a  very  magnificent 
and  pompous  Diet,  there  being  so  many  royal  and  princely 
ladies  in  the  place.  There  were  Italian  and  German  dances 
nearly  every  evening.  King  Ferdinand  especially  was  rarely 
without  guests,  who  were  always  splendidly  treated,  and  had 
all  sorts  of  amusements  and  magnificent  dances.  There  was 
most  stately  and  well-got  up  musica  non  solum  Instrumentalis, 
venim  etiam  vocalis;  besides  other  devices.  There  always 
stood  behind  the  King  one  of  his  jesters,  with  whom  he  used 
to  bandy  laughable  talk,  and  to  put  him  down  with  ease.  He 
generally  had  royal  and  princely  persons  {utviiisqus  sexiis) 
sitting  with  him  at  table,  with  whom  without  intermission  he 
would  keep  up  a  pleasant  conversation,  fov  his  tongue  never 
rested." 

2, — Position  of  the  nobility  under  Ferdinand  I,  in  Austria — The 
first  Protestant  "  chain  of  the  nobles," 

According  to  the  original  documents  pertaining  to  the 
government  of  Charles  V.,  which  have  been  brought  to 
light  from  the  different  archives,  there  can  be  no  doubt 
left  but  that  the  persons  who  enjoyed  the  confidence  of  Fer- 
dinand were  hostile  to  Charles.  The  latter  indeed  had,  after 
the  Pope,  no  worse   secret  enemy  than  his  brother,   who, 

12 — 2 


l8o  FERDINAND     I. 

especially  at  the  catastrophe  in  the  Tyrol,  worked  hand  in 
hand  with  Maurice.  Concerning  the  existence  of  that  spirit  of 
opposition  at  Ferdinand's  court  long  before  that  catastrophe, 
irrefutable  evidence  may  be  adduced  from  the  despatches  of 
the  ambassadors  of  those  times.  The  Archbishop  of  Lund, 
one  of  the  most  able  diplomatists  of  the  Emperor  Charles, 
reports  to  his  master,  as  far  back  as  the  17th  of  November, 
1534,  from  Vienna  : 

"  As  in  duty  bound,  and  according  to  the  true  state  of 
affairs,  I  would  point  out  to  your  Majesty  that  the  whole 
government  rests  with  the  privy  councillors  of  his  royal 
Majesty,  John  Hoffman,  Baron  von  Roggendorf,  and  Leonard 
von  Fels ;  the  latter  a  relation  of  the  Cardinal  of  Trent  (Bern- 
hard  von  Gloss) ;  and  that,  to  call  the  thing  by  its  right 
name,  they  lead  the  King  just  where  they  please.  I  see  that 
these  councillors  are  not  very  favourable  to  the  interest  of 
your  Majesty ;  and  I  have  found  that,  on  the  contrary,  they 
are  very  strongly  disposed  against  it,  and  that  they  even  express  them- 
selves hostile  to  it." 

The  families  of  the  three  lords  mentioned  in  this  despatch, 
who  formed  the  council  of  King  Ferdinand,  the  HofFmans, 
Colonna-Fels,  and  Roggendorfs,  formed  also  the  nucleus  of  the 
Protestant  band  or  "  chain  of  nobles  "  in  Austria,  and  main- 
tained themselves  in  power  for  the  whole  of  a  century.  After 
the  outbreak  of  the  Bohemian  rebellion,  at  the  beginning  of 
the  Thirty  Years'  War,  they  joined  the  Palatine  King ;  and 
after  his  downfall  were  obliged,  with  the  loss  of  all  their 
ofifices,  honours,  and  estates,  to  take  refuge  in  Silesia.  A 
fourth  family  belonging  to  this  Austrian  ^^ Fronde  "  was  that  of 
the  Dietrichsteins,  who  had  been  raised  to  such  a  high  place 
by  Maximilian  \.  They,  however,  remained,  in  the  Thirty 
Years'  War,  true  to  the  house  of  Habsburg ;  and  with  the 
Liechtensteins,  who  had  returned  to  the  old  creed,  placed 
themselves,  in  the  seventeenth  century,  at  the  head  of  the 
second  Catholic  *'  chain  of  nobles." 

Immediately  after  the  death  of  Maximilian  L,  a  strong 
movement  arose  in  the  Austrian  hereditary  countries  for 
reforms  in  the  constitution  and  administration.     The  regency 


THE     FIRST     "  CHAIN     OF     NOBLES  "  l8l 

appointed  by  Maximilian  in  his  last  will  was  set  aside,  and 
the  public  treasury  and  the  arsenal  laid  hold  of  by  some 
members  of  the  nobility,  the  university,  and  the  municipality. 
Sigismund  von  Herberstein,  who  was  sent  by  the  Estates  of 
Styria  as  one  of  their  delegates  to  Charles  V.  in  Spain,  and 
had  an  audience  with  him  at  Molino  del  Re,  near  Barcelona, 
easily  guessed,  from  the  answer  of  Charles,  that  he  was  "very 
little  pleased  with  the  things  which  had  happened  in  Austria 
and  at  Vienna."  Ferdinand  caused,  in  December,  1522,  two 
noblemen,  Buchheim  and  Eytzing,  and  six  citizens,  to  be 
executed.  This,  however,  did  by  no  means  crush  the  factious 
spirit  of  the  nobility. 

Concerning  this  spirit  at  the  court  of  King  Ferdinand 
and  throughout  Austria  Proper,  remarkable  disclosures  are 
contained  in  a  memoir  published  by  Dr.  Lanz  in  the 
State  Papers  of  the  Emperor  Charles,  from  the  archives  at 
Brussels.  It  is  written  in  the  year  1542,  four  years  before  the 
outbreak  of  the  Smalcalde  war.  Its  author,  Messire  Corneille 
Scepperus,  Baron  d'Eck,  Chevalier  Conseiller  et  Maistre  aux 
Requestes  de  I'Empereur,  was  a  diplomatist  employed  by 
Charles  on  many  occasions  as  ambassador  to  the  German 
Empire  and  to  the  Sublime  Porte.  It  is  the  most  remarkable 
document  which  has  come  under  my  notice  among  those  of 
the  earlier  Austrian  history  anterior  to  the  Thirty  Years' 
War.  It  affords  irrefragable  evidence  of  the  existence  of 
that  organised  league  among  the  nobility  which  has  been 
designated  the  "  chain  of  nobles  " — a  term  which  is  expressly 
made  use  of  in  it.  Some  passages  from  it  may  be  in  their 
place  here. 

"  I  was,  in  the  year  1532  and  in  the  beginning  of  1533,  at 
the  court  of  King  Ferdinand,  as  well  at  Innsbruck  and  Linz 
as  at  Vienna.  There  I  every  day  heard  most  of  the  ministers 
and  grandees,  as  the  lords  Von  Roggendorf,  Von  Fels,  Von 
Dietrichstein,  and  others,  abusing  the  Emperor.  They  called 
him  the  most  ungrateful  prince  who  trod  the  earth,  and  such- 
like expressions  ;  indeed,  they  spoke  so  disrespectfully  of  his 
Majesty,  that  it  was  shocking,  and  utterly  disregarding  that  I 
was  the  ambassador  of  his  Imperial  Majesty  at  the  court  of 


l82  FERDINAND     I. 

the  King.  I  could  not  suppose  but  that  their  object  was  to  lower 
his  Imperial  Majesty  in  the  estimation  of  his  brother,  of  the  nobility, 
and  of  all  the  people  in  the  countries  of  the  King.  They  publicly 
asserted  that  the  Emperor  was  the  cause  of  all  the  misery  that  had 
befallen  Germany. 

"In  the  year  1534,  on  my  return  from  Turkey,  I  heard  it 
said  at  Nuremberg,  Mayence,  and  Cologne,  that  the  coun- 
cillors of  the  King  would  by  no  means  be  pleased  to  see 
their  master  great ;  that,  on  the  contrary,  they  endeavoured 
to  keep  him  in  their  subjection ;  and  those  well-minded 
persons  pitied  the  good  King  for  allowing  himself  to  be 
governed  by  people  like  Count  Salamanca,  Sigismund  von 
Dietrichstein,  and  Hans  Hoffman,  whose  object  it  was  to 
get  all  the  good  places  of  the  Austrian  countries  into  their 
own  hands.  They,  moreover,  said  that  these  people  increased 
their  party  more  and  more  every  day  by  marriages  and 
alliances  among  themselves,  and  especially  with  those  who 

held  commands  within  the  country  and  in  the  borders 

The  before -mentioned  Salamanca  and  Dietrichstein  had 
agreed  between  them  to  ruin  the  King,  and  to  buy  for  a 
ridiculously  low  price  the  Church  lands  which  the  Pope  had 
left  to  the  King.     With  these  estates  they  had  enriched  themselves. 

"  I  was  informed  repeatedly  that  all  the  lords  of  Austria 
were  leagued  together  for  such  purposes,  dropping  all  former 
enmity  for  the  advantage  which  they  derived  from  these 
purchases ;  and  that,  in  fine,  they  managed  matters  very 
well  between  them,  and  that  this  league  they  called  the  chain." 

From  this  it  may  be  seen  that  in  Austria,  as  everywhere 
in  Germany,  the  nobles  turned  the  Reformation  to  their  own 
advantage.  Not  only  did  they  appropriate  the  ecclesiastical 
and  conventual  estates,  but  they  also  used  the  ignorant  single- 
minded  common  people  as  the  tools  of  their  opposition  against 
their  ruler. 

When  Ferdinand  assumed  the  government  there  were, 
according  to  the  statement  of  a  Venetian  ambassador,  nine- 
tenths  of  Germany  professing  the  new  creed ;  in  the  hereditary 
Habsburg  dominions  also  by  far  the  greater  number  were 
Lutherans.     The  whole  nobility  of  Austria  at  that  time  went 


PATRON  OF  THE  JESUITS  183 

to  study  at  Wittenberg.  Three  young  men  belonging  to 
the  Protestant  peerage  of  Austria  were  in  succession  elected 
(honorary)  rectors  of  the  university  of  Luther.  It  is  a  very 
significant  fact  that  the  authority  of  the  Pope  at  that  time 
was  generally  despised,  and  that  the  two  parties,  the  fol- 
lowers of  the  old  and  new  creed,  lived  with  each  other  in  perfect 
peace — the  estahlishment  of  the  order  of  Jesuits  afterwards  lighted  the 
torch  of  discord  in  the  Empire.  The  Venetian  ambassador 
Micheli  writes,  in  1564:  "People  have  agreed  to  tolerate 
each  other;  in  mixed  communities  the  question  is  seldom 
asked  whether  anyone  is  Catholic  or  Protestant.  The 
families  also  are  mixed  in  like  manner.  There  are  houses 
where  the  elder  generation  belongs  to  one  and  the  younger 
to  the  other  creed.  Brothers  follow  different  religions,  and 
Catholics  and  Protestants  intermarry  without  any  one  being 
scandalised  by  it  or  even  heeding  it." 

Ferdinand  on  his  side  was  a  Catholic  with  all  his  heart. 
In  his  last  will  he  most  earnestly  warned  all  his  sons,  and 
especially  Maximilian  the  eldest,  against  following  a  religious 
party  which,  being  divided  in  itself  as  to  doctrine,  could  not 
hold  the  truth.  "  I  would  rather  see  you  dead  than  that  you 
should  join  the  new  sects,"  he  wrote  in  his  codicil  of  1555. 
He  was  an  active  patron  of  the  Jesuits,  having  for  his  con- 
fessor Bobadilla,  one  of  the  founders  of  the  order.  The 
fathers  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  quietly  and  cautiously  gained 
under  Ferdinand  a  footing  at  Vienna.  At  first  they  were 
quartered  with  the  Dominicans,  gave  private  instruction,  and 
tried  in  the  distressed  times  of  the  plague  to  be  everything 
to  everybody;  just  as  afterwards  in  China  they  made  their 
way  as  mechanicians,  mathematicians,  and  compilers  of 
almanacks.  Thus  in  Vienna  they  acted  as  physicians,  effect- 
ing cures  by  means  of  Peruvian  bark,  which  was  therefore 
long  called  "  the  Jesuits'  powder."  In  1551,  the  first  Jesuits' 
college  which  Germany  has  had  was  founded  in  the  capital 
of  the  Habsburgs.  It  occupied  the  locality  of  the  present 
Ministry  of  War  at  Vienna,  and  contained  the  secret  chan- 
cellery of  the  Austrian  province  of  the  order.  It  was  in- 
habited by  eleven  fathers,  sent  by  Ferdinand's  wish,  and  at 


184  FERDINAND     I. 

the  command  of  Pope  Julius  III.,  by  the  then  still  living 
chief  founder  Don  Ignatio  Loyola,  who  died  at  Rome  in  1556. 
In  1552  Petrus  Canisius,  the  compiler  of  the  celebrated 
catechism,  arrived.  He  remained  until  1556,  and  then  went 
to  Bavaria.  In  1556  Jesuit  colleges  were  established  at 
Ingolstadt  and  Cologne,  in  addition  to  the  one  at  Vienna. 
From  these  three  centres  the  "  Spanish  priests,"  as  they  were 
first  called  in  Germany,  spread  over  Austria,  Bavaria,  the 
Tyrol,  Franconia,  Swabia,  a  great  part  of  the  Rhenish  pro- 
vinces, and  also  to  some  extent  in  Bohemia. 

While  Ferdinand  through  his  confessor,  Bobadilla,  in- 
timately allied  himself  with  the  Pope,  the  Elector  of  Saxony, 
Augustus,  the  brother  and  successor  of  Maurice,  assembled 
the  heads  of  the  Protestants  at  Naumburg  in  1551.  The 
Emperor  was  favourable  to  a  union,  and  even  the  Pope, 
Pius  IV.,  of  the  house  of  Medici,  sent  his  nuncio  in  the 
person  of  the  very  clever  Commendone.  The  right  moment 
for  a  reconciliation  seemed  to  have  arrived ;  the  great  men  of 
the  reformers  were  dead,  and  the  generation  succeeding  them 
were  sobered  down  or  split  into  different  hostile  parties.  The 
gentle,  timid  Melanchthon,  he  who  had  given  such  great  offence 
to  the  zealous  Lutherans  by  his  leaning  towards  the  tenets  of 
Calvin,  especially  in  his  "Apologia  Variata"  of  the  Augsburg 
Confession,  died  igth  of  April,  1560,  at  Wittenberg.  A  few 
days  previous  to  his  death  he  had  written  on  a  sheet  of  paper, 
as  in  soliloquy:  "  Thou  wilt  see  the  light ;  thou  wilt  see  God  ; 
thou  wilt  behold  Jesus  Christ ;  thou  wilt  understand  those 
wonderful  mysteries  which  thou  didst  not  understand  in  this 
life — why  we  have  been  made  as  we  are,  and  what  is  the 
union  of  the  two  natures  in  Christ ;  thou  wilt  leave  off  sin- 
ning ;  thou  wilt  be  delivered  from  all  evil,  and  from  the  wvath 
of  the  theologians."  For,  although  Papists  and  Protestants 
lived  in  peace  with  each  other  as  far  as  the  affairs  of  this 
world  went,  yet  there  were  very  sharp  controversies  every- 
where about  the  most  abstruse  points  of  doctrine  among  the 
Protestants  themselves  ;  and  it  was  not  Melanchthon  alone 
who  complained  of  the  clergy  as  the  principal  instigators  of 
these  constant  squabbles.     Commendone,  the  Pope's  nuncio. 


CONVENTION     OF     NAUMBURG  185 

intimated  to  the  Protestants  at  Naumburg:  "  How  much  dis- 
sension is  among  you  concerning  Luther's  doctrine  !  There 
is  no  town,  no  house  in  Germany  free  from  theological 
squabbles.  Men  dispute  with  men,  and  children  with  their 
parents,  about  the  meaning  of  the  Scriptures.  In  company, 
in  taverns,  at  drinking  parties,  at  the  gambling-tables,  the 
most  holy  truths  are  discussed,  and  women  take  it  upon 
themselves  to  decide  on  them.  But  you  will  never  unite, 
because  as  sure  as  true  tenets  do  agree,  false  tenets  do  not. 
The  further  you  sail  into  the  ocean  of  error,  the  darker  are  its 
waves." 

The  convention  of  Naumburg  did  not  succeed  in  bringing 
about  a  union  of  the  divided  religious  parties.  As,  since  the 
downfall  of  the  Hohenstaufen,  the  Empire  had  dissolved  into 
innumerable  small  political  disunited  dominions,  so  the 
Church  since  the  Reformation  split  into  a  number  of  par- 
ticular churches,  which  again  divided  into  sects.  In  the 
religious  as  well  as  in  the  political  world,  there  was  war 
of  all  against  all.  The  Elector  Augustus  of  Saxony  tried, 
in  1580,  to  unite  the  Lutherans  by  a  fixed  symbolic  form — 
the  Formula  Concordiae,  but  many  Lutheran  princes  and 
cities  refused  to  accept  it ;  nay,  it  soon  became  a  Formula 
Discordiae,  as  two  of  the  principal  persons  who  had  sworn  to 
it,  the  Electors  Palatine  and  of  Brandenburg,  embraced  Cal- 
vinism. The  Calvinists  at  last  split  into  no  less  than  five 
large  parties.  These  were,  a  German  "  Reformed  Church," 
with  the  Heidelberg  Catechism ;  a  Belgian,  with  the  decrees  of 
the  Synod  of  Dort;  a  Swüss,  with  the  Helvetic;  a  French, 
with  the  Galilean  Confession ;  and,  lastly,  the  Church  of 
England,  with  the  Thirty-nine  Articles.^  The  Lutheran  and 
Calvinist  preachers  attacked  each  other  with  the  most  hateful 

^  Dr.  Vehse  here  follows  a  prejudice  which  is  very  common  in 
Germany.  Non-theologians  there  generally  look  upon  the  Church  of 
England  as  Calvinist,  on  account  of  bread  being  used  in  the  Eucharist 
instead  of  the  wafer,  as  in  the  Lutheran  Church.  But  the  very  use  by 
the  earliest  English  reformers  of  the  term  Protestant,  which  is  the  histori- 
cal name  of  the  Lutherans,  whilst  on  the  Continent  the  Calvinists  always 
call  themselves  "  the  Reformed  Church,"  points  to  an  affinity  of  the 
Church  of  England  rather  with  the  Lutherans  than  with  the  Calvinists, 
who  in  this  country  evidently  have  borrowed  that  name  from  the  originally 


l86  FERDINAND     I. 

bitterness,  wrangling  about  tenets,  about  the  meaning  of  a 
passage  of  Scripture,  an  idea,  a  word.  Passions  became 
heated  to  the  highest  point  in  these  petty  quarrels.  Abuse 
stood  for  argument,  and  the  upshot  generally  was,  that  each 
consigned  his  antagonist  to  the  lowest  depths  of  hell.  The 
subtle,  versatile  Jesuits  by  this  means  gained  more  and  more 
ground  at  the  courts  against  the  bluff,  unmannered  Protestant 
divines.  The  reverend  fathers  only  bided  their  time  for 
taking  the  offensive  as  soon  as  the  disunion  of  their  foes 
among  themselves  should  be  completed. 

3, — Ferdinand'' s  family — Philippina  Weiser  and  her  children. 

The  Emperor  Ferdinand  died  in  1564  of  a  slow  fever  in 
Vienna,  at  the  age  of  sixty-one,  and  was  buried  at  Prague  by 
the  side  of  his  wife,  Ann  Jagellon,  who  had  preceded  him  in 
death  by  seventeen  years.  Of  fifteen  fine  children  whom 
he  had  by  her,  three  only  survived  him  :  Maximilian,  his 
successor  ;  Ferdinand,  who  received  the  Tyrol ;  and  Charles, 
who  received  Styria.  Maximilian's  line  became  extinct  with 
his  sons  ;  Ferdinand  of  Tyrol  left  no  children  entitled  to  the 
royal  succession  ;  and  thus  the  Austrian  branch  of  the  house 
of  Habsburg  was  continued  by  the  youngest  brother,  Charles 
of  Styria,  the  devotee,  who  became  the  father  of  Ferdinand  II., 
known  as  Ferdinand  of  Grätz. 

Archduke  Ferdinand  of  the  Tyrol  has  become  famous  for 
his  morganatic  marriage  with  Philippina  Welser,  who  was 
considered  the  most  beautiful  woman  of  her  time.  She  was 
the  daughter  of  the  Augsburg  patrician  Francis  Weiser,  who 
did  money  business  with  the  Emperor.  Ferdinand  made  her 
acquaintance  at  the  Diet  of  Augsburg,  at  which  his  uncle 
Charles  V.  published  the  "  Interim,"  and  which  he  himself 
attended  on  his  return  from  the  battle  of  Mühlberg,  where 

Lutheran  reformers.  This  affinity  is  even  more  strongly  evidenced  by  the 
unmistakeable  fact  of  a  very  considerable  part  of  the  Thirty-nine  Articles 
being  taken  almost  literally  from  the  Confession  of  Augsburg.  Nor  does 
the  letter  and  spirit  of  the  rubric  lean  more  towards  Calvin  than  towards 
Luther  ;  and  it  would  certainly  be  a  very  bold  assertion  that  episcopacy 
in  its  full  bearing  is  more  at  home  at  Geneva  than  at  Wittenberg. — Translator. 


PHILIPPINA    WELSER  187 

he  had  fought  in  the  first  line  at  the  head  of  the  Bohemian 
troops.  Philippina  was  at  that  time  in  her  nineteenth  year. 
Ferdinand  had  fallen  most  violently  in  love  with  her  at  first 
sight  on  meeting  her  in  the  street.  He  was  one  year  older 
than  the  lady ;  in  his  features  rather  resembling  his  father, 
only  that  he  was  handsomer  and  his  hair  lighter.  Ferdinand, 
the  chivalrous,  enthusiastic,  light-hearted,  and  jovial  swain, 
could  not  forget  the  beautiful  Philippina.  He  married  her 
privately  on  the  24th  of  April,  1548  ;  and,  notwithstanding 
the  strong  aversion  of  his  father,  had,  in  January,  1557,  the 
ceremony  repeated  according  to  the  rites  of  the  Council  of 
Trent,  with  the  strictest  secrecy,  only  the  priest  and  the 
dowager  Catherine  von  Loxan  being  present  as  witnesses. 
From  154g  to  1567  Ferdinand  was  his  father's  viceroy  in 
Bohemia,  with  residence  at  Prague.  Philippina  lived  in 
complete  retirement  at  the  castle  of  Biirglitz,  a  few  leagues 
from  the  Bohemian  capital.  At  last  Philippina  herself 
brought  about  a  reconciliation  with  her  father -in -lav/, 
whom  she  gained  over  by  her  angelic  beauty.  She  was  so 
fair  and  lovely  that  those  who  knew  her  were  untiring  in 
her  praises.  Her  skin  is  said  to  have  been  of  such  trans- 
parency that  when  she  drank  red  wine  the  dark  fluid  was 
seen  through  her  delicate  neck.^  Philippina,  in  the  year  1561, 
came  incognito  to  the  court  of  the  Emperor  at  Prague.  She 
threw  herself  at  the  feet  of  the  Emperor,  and  told  him  under 
a  feigned  name  the  misery  which  the  harsh  father  of  her 
husband  inflicted  upon  her.  The  Emperor,  moved  by  her  tale 
of  woe,  raised  her,  and  promised  to  intercede  with  the  cruel 
father,  that  he  would  no  longer  repudiate  such  a  lovely 
daughter-in-law.  On  this  Philippina  made  herself  known. 
The  Emperor  now  acknowledged  their  union  as  a  morganatic 
marriage  ;  their  children,  however,  were  to  succeed,  to  the 
German  possessions  of  the  house  of  Habsburg  when  the 
whole  Austrian  male  line  of  the  family  was  extinct.  But  the 
Emperor  insisted  upon  the  marriage   being  strictly  kept  a 

1  A  portrait  of  Philippina,  representing  this  remarkable  feature,  is 
still  extant  at  Nuremberg,  at  the  old  family  mansion  of  the  patrician  house 
of  Poller,  which  intermarried  with  the  Welsers. — Translator. 


l88  FERDINAND     I. 

secret,  a  few  persons  of  the  court  and  the  midwife  being  alone 
informed  of  it  under  a  solemn  oath  not  to  divulge  it.  From 
this  vow  the  initiated  were  dispensed  only  twelve  years  after 
the  Emperor's  death.  Since  1567,  when  Ferdinand  undertook 
the  government  of  Tyrol,  he  lived  with  Philippina  at  the 
castle  of  Ambras,  near  Innsbruck,  where  he  collected  the 
celebrated  gallery  of  portraits  and  armour  of  distinguished 
princes  and  heroes  to  the  number  of  a  hundred  and  twenty- 
five,  which  is  still  shown  at  Vienna.  At  Castle  Ambras,  an 
old  baronial  seat  of  the  extinct  illustrious  family  of  Andechs, 
the  fair  Philippina  died,  on  the  anniversary  of  her  wedding 
day,  in  1580.  According  to  Johannes  Müller,  at  one  time 
custos  of  the  imperial  library  at  Vienna,  there  are  still  extant 
there  five  folio  volumes  of  domestic  cookery  and  medicinal 
recipes  which  belonged  to  her,  two  of  them  in  her  own  hand- 
writing ;  from  which  we  may  gather  that  she  was  a  right  good 
housewife. 

She  left  to  Ferdinand  two  sons,  who  were  called  D'Austria. 
The  elder,  Andrew,  born  in  1558,  became,  in  1597,  Cardinal 
of  Austria,  bishop  of  Brixen  and  Constance ;    in   1579  and 

1599,  he  was  governor  of  the  Netherlands;  and  he  died  in 

1600,  during  the  jubilee  in  Rome,  in  the  arms  of  Pope  Clement 
VIII.  The  younger  son,  Charles,  after  having  served  in  the 
Netherlands  with  the  Spaniards  and  in  Hungary  against  the 
Turks,  got  with  great  difficulty,  in  1609,  the  marquisate  of 
Burgau  in  Swabia.  He  married,  in  1601,  a  princess  of  Juliers, 
who  was  already  in  her  forty-fifth  year ;  and  he  died  at  Günz- 
burg,  his  residence,  in  1618,  without  leaving  any  legitimate 
issue.  But  he  had  by  Clara  of  Ferery,  before  his  marriage, 
two  sons  and  a  daughter,  who  bore  the  name  Von  Hohenberg. 
The  lords  Von  Hohenberg  inherited  considerable  landed  pro- 
perty from  their  father.  Their  descendants  were  raised,  in 
1677,  by  the  Emperor  Leopold  I.,  to  the  dignity  of  Freiherren^ 
von  Hohenberg  and  Weitingen,  and  married  into  the  noble 
houses  of  the  Swabian  peerage. 

Charles  Joseph  von  Hohenberg,  the  last  of  his  line,  met 
in   1728,  on  his  thirty-second  birthday,  with  a  sudden  and 

1  Corresponding  to  the  English  viscount. — Translator. 


THE    LAST     HOHENBERG  iSg 

violent  death  in  a  very  remarkable  manner.  He  was  a  small, 
somewhat  hunchbacked,  jovial  man,  of  rather  sarcastic  turn, 
but  who  always  boasted  of  having  the  gift  of  "  second  sight." 
How  this  came  true  in  his  own  case  is  related  by  Hormayr, 
from  the  report  of  an  eye-witness,  who  is  averse,  even  hostile, 
to  everything  like  a  belief  in  visions. 

"  Baron  Hohenberg  had  invited  for  his  birthday  all  his 
relations,  friends,  and  boon  companions  of  the  neighbourhood. 
Ladies  were  not  seen  at  his  board.  The  first  arrival  was 
Baron  von  H.,  the  lord-lieutenant  of  the  county.  The  noble 
host  received  him  in  his  usual  jovial  manner,  led  him  up  the 
staircase,  and  opened  for  him  the  door  of  the  large  hall ;  but 
immediately  started  back  horrified,  covering  his  face  with  both 
hands  and  trembling  from  head  to  foot.  As  his  visitor  in 
amazement  asked  what  was  the  matter,  the  host  in  great 
agitation  pointed  towards  the  middle  of  the  hall,  being  unable 
to  utter  anything  beyond  *  There  !  there  ! '  The  lord-lieu- 
tenant replied  that  be  saw  nothing  but  the  large  banqueting- 
table  ready  spread.  Baron  Hohenberg,  however,  exclaimed, 
*  There  !  there  !  don't  you  see  that  the  hall  is  all  hung  with 
black,  and  also  the  many  funeral  tapers  ?  and  lo !  yonder  I 
am  myself  laid  out  on  the  state-bed  ;  and  oh  !  the  nasty  smell 
of  the  tapers,  and  the  oil,  and  perhaps  of  the  corpse  itself ! ' 

"  The  lord-lieutenant  had  great  difficulty  in  inducing  his 
host  to  enter  the  room  in  order  that  he  might  convince  him- 
self by  touch  that  there  was  really  nothing  but  the  banqueting- 
table.  As  the  guests  arrived  by  degrees  the  agitation  of  the 
baron  gave  way  to  his  usual  joviality.  He  now  told  them 
that  just  a  year  before,  when  out  hunting,  a  gipsy  fortune- 
teller, after  looking  at  his  hand,  had  told  him  that  he  should 
always  pass  his  birthday  quite  alone,  in  serious  thought  and 
prayer,  secluded  from  the  world,  and  even  from  his  own 
people,  for  his  birthday  would  also  be  the  day  of  his  death, 
and  that  he  would  lose  his  life  by  a  fool. 

"  The  guests  now  sat  down  to  table,  when  merry  toasts 
were  proposed,  wishing  to  the  giver  of  the  feast  long  life, 
much  happiness,  and  a  speedy  marriage.  After  dinner  the 
company  went  into  the  open  air  to  amuse  themselves  with 


igO  FERDINAND    I. 

different  rural  sports.  All  at  once  some  one  called  out,  '  But 
where  is  our  merryandrew,  Master  Michael  Ganskragen 
(goose-neck)  ?  Since  we  rose  from  table  he  has  made  him- 
self scarce ;  he  is  sure  to  be  lying  dead  drunk  either  in  the 
kitchen  or  in  the  cellar.'  The  poor  fellow,  who  used  to 
be  baited  by  everyone,  and,  especially  in  the  games,  was 
most  liberally  treated  to  kicks  and  cuffs  innumerable,  had 
taken  refuge  in  a  closet  at  the  top  of  the  house,  known  to  but 
a  few  of  the  inmates,  and  which  was  only  approached  by 
a  narrow  and  very  steep  staircase.  The  roysterous  guests, 
after  having  searched  the  whole  castle  in  vain,  returned  vexed 
and  angry  to  the  skittle-ground.  Baron  Hohenberg,  however, 
told  them  with  a  laugh  that  he  could  at  once  bring  down  the 
jester.  All  followed  the  host,  who  was  not  long  in  discovering 
the  deserter  in  his  hiding-place;  but  the  jester  refused  to  open 
the  door.  In  vain  the  master  of  the  house  tried  to  kick  it  in, 
until  at  last  he  remembered  an  old  forgotten  rope  by  which  it 
might  be  opened.  He  pulled  with  all  his  might;  but  the 
rotten  line  snapped,  and  Baron  Hohenberg,  falHng  backwards 
down  the  staircase,  broke  his  neck. 

"  When,  on  the  following  day,  the  lord-lieutenant,  with 
his  officials,  entered  the  hall  where  the  banquet  had  been  on 
the  day  before,  a  shudder  seized  him :  the  corpse  lay  exactly 
in  the  same  place,  and  the  whole  hall  was  fitted  up  as  Baron 
Hohenberg  had  described  it  from  his  vision  of  second  sight. 
*  Hohenberg !  Hohenberg !  and  never  Hohenberg  any  more !  * 
it  was  then  said,  as  is  the  custom  wherever  the  shield  and 
helmet  are  laid  on  the  coffin  of  the  last  of  his  race." 

Archduke  Ferdinand  of  Tyrol  married  in  1582,  two  years 
after  Philippina's  death,  a  Mantuan  princess.  Anna,  one  of 
his  daughters  by  this  second  marriage,  became  the  wife  of  the 
Emperor  Matthias  ;  the  other  went  into  a  convent  at  Inns- 
bruck.    Tyrol  reverted  to  the  imperial  house. 

The  youngest  son  of  Ferdinand,  Archduke  Charles,  be- 
came the  founder  of  the  line  of  Styria  (Grätz),  which  in  the 
sequel  ascended  the  imperial  throne.  Charles  was  twice  very 
nearly  being  married  to  an  English  princess — to  Queen  Mary, 
and,  after  her  death,  to  Queen  Elizabeth.     A  despatch  in  the 


ARCHDUKE    CHARLES    AND    QUEEN     ELIZABETH  I9I 

State  Papers  of  Cardinal  Granvella  (vol.  iv.,  p.  100)  shows 
that  the  former  marriage  was  agreeable  to  the  wishes  of 
the  councillors  of  Mary,  who  would  rather  have  had  her 
married  to  Charles  than  to  Don  Philip.  The  latter  marriage 
was  not  effected  because  of  their  religion,  and  because  Fer- 
dinand would  not  send  his  son  to  pay  a  previous  visit  in 
England.  Charles  of  Styria  afterwards,  in  1570,  at  the  age 
of  thirty,  married  Mary  of  Bavaria,  who  became  the  mother 
of  the  Emperor  Ferdinand  II. 

Concerning  the  match  with  Elizabeth  the  Emperor  Maxi- 
milian once  wrote  (29th  of  August,  1567)  from  Vienna  to  his 
brother  Duke  Albert  of  Bavaria:  "  Your  Highness  is  no  doubt 
aware  that  an  English  embassy  is  here  ;  but  it  brings  no  better 
ofTers  than  the  former  ones,  and  it  looks  rather  as  if  the  whole 
affair  would  split  in  negotio  religionis ;  for  the  pith  of  it  is  that 
they  wish  my  lord  my  brother  to  accommodate  himself  to  their 
religion  in  piillicis,  which  my  brother  does  not  intend  to  do, 
for  they  will  not  allow  him  to  attend  mass  either ;  and  thus  it 
looks  rather  as  if  nothing  would  come  out  of  it."  A  second 
reason,  based  on  the  character  of  Elizabeth,  Maximilian  had 
before  pointed  out  in  a  letter  of  the  13th  of  August,  1565: 
"  As  to  the  English  marriage,  I  am  almost  of  the  same  opinion 
as  your  Highness,  as  I  have  for  my  own  part,  for  the  present, 
put  very  little  trust  in  it,  quia  est  midier  inconstantissima." 

Of  the  twelve  daughters  of  the  Emperor  Ferdinand  I., 
Elizabeth,  one  of  the  most  beautiful  princesses  of  her  day, 
was  married,  in  1543,  to  King  Sigismund  Jagellon  of  Poland; 
she  died  in  1545,  on  which  he  married  her  sister  Catherine, 
who,  although  not  more  than  twenty,  had  already  been  left  a 
widow  by  Duke  Francis  of  Mantua ;  but  she  was  sent  back, 
as  there  was  no  prospect  of  her  ever  having  any  children.  A 
third  princess,  Anna,  became,  in  1546,  at  the  age  of  eighteen, 
the  wife  of  Duke  Albert  V.  of  Bavaria.  A  fourth  princess, 
Mary,  was  united  in  the  same  month  to  the  Duke  William  V. 
of  Juliers  and  Cleves,  who  had  to  cede  Guelderland  to 
Charles  V.,  and  who  at  first  became  Lutheran,  then  Catholic 
again,  and  at  last  went  out  of  his  mind  altogether;  after 
which  she,  the  princess,  underwent  the  same  fate.     With  her 


iga 


FERDINAND     I. 


son,  the  likewise  demented  John  William,  the  possessions  of 
Juliers  and  Cleves  became  vacant  in  1609.  A  fifth  daughter 
of  the  Emperor  Ferdinand,  Eleanor,  married,  in  1561,  Duke 
William  of  Mantua,  the  brother  of  the  above-mentioned 
Francis ;  and  also  the  sixth  and  seventh  daughters  were 
wedded  to  Italian  potentates — Barbara,  in  1565,  to  Duke 
Alfonso  II.  of  Ferrara,  and  Joanna  to  Duke  Francis  of 
Florence.  Three  daughters  took  the  veil,  and  two  died  in 
infancy. 


I 


MAXIMILIAN     II.  ;     HIS    PARENTAGE  193 


CHAPTER    IV 

Maximilian  II. — (1564-1576). 

7. — Personal  notices  of  the  Emperor, 

Maximilian  II.  was  the  eldest  son  of  Ferdinand  I.  He 
was  born  at  Vienna  in  1527,  but  was  educated  principally  in 
Spain,  under  the  direction  of  the  Emperor  Charles  V.,  his 
uncle.  He  had  for  his  tutors  three  distinguished  scholars : 
Ursinus  Velius,  of  Schweidnitz  in  Silesia,  who  had  been 
secretary  to  the  famous  magnificent  Bishop  of  Gurk,  Mathew 
Lang  von  Wellenburg,  and  who,  after  having  been  nominated 
by  Maximilian  I.  poet-laureate,  and  by  Ferdinand  I.  councillor 
and  orator  in  1538,  ended  his  career  by  drowning  himself  in 
the  Danube — it  is  said  from  melancholy  on  account  of  his 
shrewish  wife ;  secondly,  the  learned  Bohemian  John  Horak 
von  Hasenberg ;  and  lastly,  Wolfgang  Schiefer,  who  had 
received  his  education  at  Wittenberg.  His  chief  governor 
was  John  Gaudentius,  Baron  Madruzzi,  an  Italian ;  and  his 
under-governor  Don  Piedro  Lasso  di  Castiglia,  a  Spaniard. 
Navagiero,  who  saw  the  young  Prince  Maximilian  at  the  Diet 
of  1547  and  1548,  describes  him  thus:  "  Maximihan  will  be 
twenty-one  on  the  ist  of  August  next.  He  is  a  youth  of 
great  promise,  who  has  already  fought  at  Landrecy  in  France, 
and  in  Swabia  and  Saxony  (in  the  Smalcalde  war).  He  is 
rather  tall  and  spare,  handsome,  and  of  healthy  looks;  he 
has  much  more  of  the  Emperor  in  his  disposition  than  of  his 
father,  as  he  does  not  talk  much,  but  is  grave  in  his  manner. 
He  seems  to  aspire  to  great  things,  and,  if  he  were  brought 
up  by  energetic  men,  I  think  that  high  expectations  might  be 
entertained  of  him.  Maximilian  rides  and  also  tilts  well.  He 
frequently  practises  with  the  arquebuse  and  the  crossbow. 

VOL.   I  13 


194 


MAXIMILIAN     II. 


Besides  German  he  speaks  Bohemian  and  Latin,  and  also 
French,  Spanish,  and  ItaHan— the  latter  languages  not  very 
fluently,  only  knowing  them  so  far  as  to  understand  and  to 
make  himself  understood.  He  has  a  strong  disposition  to 
command,  and  is  very  difficult  to  manage,  which  displeases 
the  King." 

Maximilian  in  his  youth  was  indeed  on  very  bad  terms 
with   his   father.     There  is   a   Latin   letter   of   Ferdinand's 
extant,   written   shortly   before    his    departure    for   the  war 
against  the  Elector  of  Saxony  to  his  two  sons  Maximilian 
and  Ferdinand.     In  it  the  father  reproaches  Maximilian  that, 
notwithstanding  his  having  received  him  once  before,  like  the 
prodigal  son,  he  nevertheless  conducted  himself  very  ill  at 
the  court  of  the  Emperor ;  that  he  was  given  to  drinking 
strong  wines,  as  he  did  at  the  court  of  the  Duke  of  Bavaria  ; 
and  that  the  vice  of  drunkenness  was  the  more  dangerous  to 
him  as  he  was  artful  and  hot-tempered  {callidtis  et  iraamdus), 
so  that  in  a  state  of  intoxication  he  was  liable  to  commit  some 
serious  crime.     The  father,  moreover,  reproaches  MaximiHan 
with  being  headstrong  (capitosiis),  and  averse  to  following  the 
counsels  of  sensible  men,  deeming  himself  wiser  than  the  rest 
of  the  world,  whereas  he  had  not  yet  seen  or  learned  anything. 
!MaximiUan,  his  father  says,  associated  only  with  loose  people, 
and  attended  only  to  his  bear  and  his  musicians ;  but  received 
grave  men  from  the  Emperor's  court  superciliously,  and  con- 
versed very  rarely  and  little  with  them.      He  urges  him  to 
beware    of   arrogance    and   conceit,   and    to    remember    the 
Italian   adage  :    *'  Qny  asino  e   el  cervo  se  crede  al  saltar  del 
foso  se  vede."     In  conclusion,  he  says,  "What  has  happened  to 
you  would  not  have  happened  if  you  had  consulted  serious 
men — quodsi  non  possis  ahstinen  luxuria,  facias,  tit  dicitur,  caute 
non  scandalose,  neqne  cum  viaritatis,  et  non  vim  vel  injuriam  in  isto 
casu  facias  vel  scandalizes." 

This  letter  affords  authentic  proof  of  Maximilian's  youth 
having  been  rather  wild.  Indeed,  he  was  the  Prince  Hal  of 
his  dynasty;  but  he  was  the  favourite  of  Charles  V.,  who 
even  gave  him  the  daughter  of  his  heart,  Mary,  the  most 
pious  woman  of  her  day,  as  his  wife.    The  wedding  of  Maxi- 


THE    AUSTRIAN     "PRINCE     HAL  "  195 

milian  took  place  at  Valladolid,  13th  of  September,  1548; 
and  during  the  absence  of  Charies  V.  and  Don  Philip  in 
Germany  and  the  Netherlands,  the  son-in-law  of  the  great 
Emperor  held  the  vice-royalty  of  Spain.  Charles  bestowed 
upon  him  the  highest  praise  for  the  manner  in  which  he 
acquitted  himself  in  this  office.  When,  in  1551,  he  enter- 
tained the  idea  of  causing  his  son  Philip  to  be  elected  King 
of  the  Romans,  it  was  part  of  his  plan  that  Maximilian  should 
become  second  Roman  King,  as  it  were  second  coadjutor. 
To  assist  in  the  negotiations  concerning  this  affair,  he  came, 
in  1551,  from  Spain  to  the  court  of  the  Emperor,  with  whom 
he  still  was,  during  the  last  days  at  Innsbruck,  in  1552.  He 
afterwards  was  present  at  the  negotiations  of  the  Peace  of 
Religion  which  his  father,  in  the  name  of  the  Emperor,  con- 
cluded at  Passau  with  Maurice  of  Saxony  ;  and  in  the  same 
year  he  was  appointed  "  Gabernator  "  of  Hungary.  He  showed 
such  decided  leaning  towards  the  Protestants  that  his  father 
is  said  to  have  intended  to  cut  him  off  from  the  succession, 
and  even  to  divorce  him  from  his  wife.  In  1562  only,  Maxi- 
milian seems  to  have  given  a  more  satisfactory  account  of 
himself.  In  this  year  he  became  King  of  Bohemia  and  King 
of  the  Romans  ;  and  in  1563  he  was  crowned  with  the  crown 
of  St.  Stephen  of  Hungary. 

2. — State  of  religion — The  army — The  Austrian  nobility  is  made, 
by  the  matriculation  of  1572,  a  dose  corporation. 

Maximilian  was  a  merry  and  jovial  sovereign,  his  humour 
keeping  a  happy  medium  between  the  undignified  and  ex- 
ceedingly prolix  garrulity  of  his  father  and  the  austere  taci- 
turnity of  his  uncle. 

As  soon  as  MaximiHan,  in  the  year  1564,  had  assumed 
the  reins  of  government,  he  at  once  showed  himself  forbearing 
and  tolerant  on  religious  points ;  much  more  so  than  his  father 
had  been,  or  than  was  agreeable  to  many  a  Catholic  prince  of 
the  Empire.  In  a  letter  to  his  brother-in-law,  Duke  Albert 
of  Bavaria,  dated  the  30th  of  May,  1566,  in  which  he  alludes 
to  this  feeHng  of  dissatisfaction,  he  lays  down  the  maxim — 
"  In  religious  matters  one  must  not  bend  the  bow  until  it  breaks." 

13—2 


ig6  MAXIMILIAN     II. 

A  Protestant  divine,  John  Sebastian  Pfauser,  who  had 
been  left  about  Maximilian  without  any  particular  inquiry  as 
to  his  tenets,  remained  for  a  long  time  his  court  preacher,  and 
became  his  teacher  in  Protestant  theology ;  and,  after  having 
been  appointed  dean  at  Lauingen,  in  the  principality  of 
Neuburg,  he  continued  secretly  to  correspond  with  Maxi- 
milian, who  was  privately  furnished  by  him  with  news  and 
with  books.  Pfauser  died  in  156g,  after  the  accession  of 
Maximilian  to  the  imperial  crown. 

Maximilian,  moreover,  lived  in  open  and  avowed  friend- 
ship with  the  first  Protestant  princes  of  the  German  Empire. 
Among  these  were  the  Elector  Augustus  of  Saxony  and  the 
Elector  Palatine  Frederic  III.,  Landgrave  Philip  of  Hesse, 
and  the  excellent  Duke  Christopher  of  Würtemberg.  With 
the  latter  he  had  been  intimate  from  boyhood,  as  Christopher, 
being  kept  in  captivity  after  his  father's  discomfiture,  was 
brought  up  at  the  court  of  King  Ferdinand  at  Innsbruck. 
Letters  are  still  extant  of  Maximilian,  in  which  he  writes  to 
Christopher  that  he  had  read  as  many  as  two  volumes  of  the 
Latin  and  five  of  the  German  writings  of  Luther,  expressing 
a  wish  to  possess  all  the  works  of  Dr.  Martinus,  and  likewise 
those  of  Melanchthon  and  Brentzius,^  which  he  begs  the 
duke  to  send  to  him. 

Maximilian  went  far  in  his  religious  toleration.  His  motto 
was,  "God  alone  rules  the  consciences  of  men,  man  only  rules 
man."  Carrying  out  this  principle,  he  issued,  in  1567,  an 
edict  for  Bohemia,  and,  in  1568,  one  for  Austria,  in  which  to 
both  these  countries  free  exercise  of  their  religion  was 
granted.  One  of  the  first  acts  of  his  reign  was  to  release 
John  Augusta,  the  noble-hearted  and  learned  bishop  of  the 
Moravian  brethren,  from  his  imprisonment,  in  which  he  had 
been  kept  by  King  Ferdinand  for  sixteen  years. 

As  early  as  1562  Maximilian  had  sent  his  Lord  Steward, 
Adam  von  Dietrichstein,  to  Rome,  to  ask  the  Pope  to  sanction 
the  administration  of  the  Eucharist  under  both  forms,  and 
the  abolition  of  the  enforced  celibacy  of  the  priests.     The 

1  A  celebrated  divine,  who  carried  out  the  reformation  in  the  Duchy 
of  Würtemberg. — Translator. 


HIS     RELIGIOUS     TOLERATION  igy 

Pope  refused  it ;  but  Maximilian  was  not  cowed  by  the  threat 
of  excommunication  which  Pius  IV.  repeatedly  held  out  to 
him,  and  just  as  little  by  the  opposition  of  his  cousin,  the 
Spanish  Don  Philip.  Maximilian  wrote  from  Vienna,  dated 
I2th  of  February,  1574,  to  his  beloved  General  Lazarus  von 
Schwendi,  the  following  letter,  which  acquires  additional 
interest  from  the  fact  of  the  arch-Chancellor  Kaunitz  once 
having  it  fetched  from  the  archives  at  Vienna  and  laid  before 
the  Empress  Maria  Theresa,  as  an  example  of  toleration 
which  she  would  do  well  to  follow.  After  her  death  it  was 
found  in  her  escritoire,  with  the  beginning  of  her  reply 
written  on  it ;  "  May  stand  over — after  my  death — the  time 
will  come  for  it." 

"  My  dear  von  Schwendi, — I  have  received  and  read  your  letter  in 
due  time,  and  am  particularly  obliged  for  your  kind  Christian  sympathy 
with  my  ailments.  May  the  Almighty  God  in  whose  hands  are  all  our 
affairs  vouchsafe  to  deal  with  me  according  to  his  Divine  Will ;  for  unfor- 
tunately things  are  going  on  in  this  world  in  such  a  way  as  to  give  one 
very  little  joy  or  rest,  but  there  is  plenty  of  tribulation,  faithlessness,  and 
dishonesty  everywhere. 

"As  to  the  foul  deed  which  the  French  have  tyrannically  perpetrated 
against  the  admiral  and  his  people  (the  Saint  Bartholomew  of  1578),  I 
cannot  commend  it  at  all,  and  /  have  heard,  to  my  heartfelt  grief,  that  my 
son-in-law  (Charles  IX.)  has  allowed  himself  to  be  persuaded  to  give  his  sanction 
to  such  an  infamotis  slaughter ;  but  I  know  this  much,  that  other  people  rule  much 
more  than  he  does.  May  God  forgive  those  who  are  the  cause  of  it  I  I  wish 
to  God  he  had  consulted  me ;  I  would  have  advised  him  as  a  true  father. 
It  is  true,  as  you  very  sensibly  write,  that  religious  matters  ought  not  to  be 
settled  by  the  sword.  No  honest  man  who  fears  God  and  loves  peace  will 
say  differently ;  nor  did  Christ  and  his  apostles  teach  otherwise :  for  their 
sword  was  their  tongue,  their  teaching  God's  word  and  their  Christian 
life ;  and,  moreover,  those  mad  people  might  have  seen  in  so  many  years 
that  this  tyrannical  burning  and  beheading  will  never  do.  In  short,  I  do 
not  like  it,  nor  will  I  ever  praise  it,  unless  God  should  make  me  foolish 
and  mad,  which  I  ever  pray  he  will  not  do. 

•  *•••• 

"  Let  Spain  and  France  do  as  they  like ;  they  will  have  to  answer  for 
it  to  God  the  just  Judge.  As  to  myself,  I  shall,  if  God  wills,  act  honestly 
and  sincerely  like  a  true  Christian  ;  and,  if  I  do  so,  I  do  not  care  for  all 
this  wicked  and  graceless  world.  With  this  I  commend  you  to  the  mercy 
of  God,  who,  in  his  heavenly  wisdom  may  turn  all  things  for  the  best,  to 
ourselves  and  to  all  Christendom." 

Maximilian  II.  was  the  last  German  Emperor  who,  as 
such,  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  an  army  of  the  Empire 
and  took  the  field  in  person.     This  happened  in  the  year 


igS  MAXIMILIAN     II. 

1566,  when  Sultan  Soleyman,  who  died  in  that  campaign 
before  Szigeth,  had  overrun  Hungary.  From  that  time  until 
1778,  when  Joseph  II.  took  the  field  against  the  Turks  with 
Austrian  troops,  no  German  Emperor  took  the  command  of  any 
army  at  all  in  the  old  style  of  the  Othos  and  the  Swabian 
Emperors,  as  Maximilian  I.  and  Charles  V.  had  also  done. 
Yet  the  circumstances  attending  the  campaign  were  most 
deplorable;  it  was  a  state  of  transition  between  the  old 
licentiousness  of  the  soldiery  and  the  modern  system  of 
military  slavery. 

The  Emperor  in  disgust  gave  up  the  command,  which 
devolved  on  Lazarus  von  Schwendi,  who  preserved  Upper 
Hungary  for  the  Emperor,  and  took,  in  1567,  the  celebrated 
fortress  of  Munkatz  from  the  Prince  of  Transylvania,  the 
son  of  Zapolya.  A  truce  for  eight  years  was  concluded 
with  the  successor  of  Soleyman,  and  the  status  quo  was 
maintained. 

Maximilian  II.  employed  as  his  councillors  learned  doc- 
tors, just  as  his  uncle,  Charles  V.,  did  the  Granvellas.  Their 
names.  Seid,  Zasius,  Sinkmoser,  and  Unverzagt,  show  at 
once  that  he  took  them  from  the  bourgeoisie  ;  and  as  Schwendi 
was  the  Emperor's  most  confidential  adviser  in  military 
affairs,  so  Dr.  Seid,  the  vice-chancellor  of  the  Empire,  was 
consulted  by  him  on  all  affairs  of  civil  government.  The 
latter,  unfortunately,  was  not  destined  to  benefit  him  long  by 
his  counsels.  Seid  met  with  his  death  in  1565,  at  the  early 
age  of  forty-nine.  His  horses  having  taken  fright  as  he  was 
returning  with  Dr.  Zasius  from  an  audience  with  the  Em- 
peror, he  jumped  out  of  the  carriage,  fell  with  his  head  against 
a  stone,  and  died  half  an  hour  afterwards. 

On  the  other  hand,  Maximilian  II.  gave  permission  to  his 
nobility  in  Austria,  by  a  general  decree,  dated  the  loth  of 
February,  1572,  to  constitute  themselves  as  a  close  corpora- 
tion. By  virtue  of  this  grant  only  matriculated  members  of 
the  body  of  nobles  could  possess  noble  estates.  This  was 
called  "  The  Privilege  of  Corporate  Standing "  {Einstands- 
recht),  according  to  which  the  corporation  had  the  right  to 
admit  new  members  at  pleasure.     The  Emperor  confirmed 


HIS     AMUSEMENTS  IQQ 

the  statute  agreed  upon,  in  1572,  by  the  three  Upper  Estates, 
the  prelates,  lords,  and  knights,  for  the  preservation  of  the 
rights  and  honours  of  the  ancient  noble  houses,  "that  in  future 
no  one  but  who  was  either  the  well-known  proprietor  of  a 
seignorial  manor  of  the  country,  or  a  person  of  ancient  noble 
descent  long  settled  in  the  country,  should  be  matriculated 
and  acknowledged  as  a  member  of  their  body,  unless  at  the 
request  of  the  honourable  Estates,  the  prelates,  lords,  and 
knights." 

In  pursuance  of  this  decree  the  rolls  of  matriculated  lords 
and  knights  of  the  canton  of  Lower  Austria  were  drawn  up 
and  completed  about  the  year  1582.  They  were  considerably 
altered  under  Ferdinand  IL  by  numerous  attainders  and  the 
admission  of  new  houses  ;  yet  they  continued  to  maintain 
their  importance  down  to  the  times  of  Joseph  IL,  who 
reduced  them  to  a  dead  letter  by  depriving  the  provincial 
nobility  of  the  privilege  of  corporate  standing. 

At  the  death  of  Maximilian  IL  the  roll  of  matriculated 
nobles  of  Lower  Austria  contained  only  fifty-eight  houses, 
fourteen  of  which — among  others  the  still  flourishing  noble 
families  of  Harrach,  Khevenhiiller,  Auersperg,  Althann,  and 
the  Hungarian  Palffys — had  been  admitted  on  the  rolls  under 
his  reign. 

There  was  not  yet  any  permanently  established  court 
under  Maximilian  IL,  who  resided  at  one  time  at  Prague  and 
at  another  at  Vienna.  His  principal  amusement  and  pleasure 
were  the  chase  and  Hungary  wine.  For  the  purpose  of 
hunting  he  acquired  the  celebrated  Prater  (the  Hyde  Park 
of  Vienna),  which  originally  was  a  forest  park  with  preserved 
game.  Schönbrunn  also,  which  he  built  in  1570,  was  in  his 
time  only  a  hunting-seat.  In  one  of  his  letters  to  his  brother- 
in-law  Albert  of  Bavaria  (dated  28th  of  September,  1568)  he 
writes :  "  I  have  several  times  wished  from  all  my  heart  that 
you  were  with  us  in  the  Prater,  where  lots  of  fine  stags  have 
shown  themselves  ;  and  particularly  on  Tuesday  last,  when  I 
had  a  boar-hunt  there,  at  which  I  bagged  thirty  head  of 
game,"  &c.  The  Hungary  wine  gave  the  Emperor  the  gout, 
which   miserably  tormented   him  ever  since   his  accession, 


200  MAXIMILIAN     II. 

although  at  that  period  he  had  not  yet  exceeded  the  age  of 
thirty-seven.  In  a  letter  (dated  29th  of  August,  1567)  to  the 
same  correspondent,  he  says,  with  regard  to  his  winebibbing, 
"  I  am  much  obliged  to  your  Highness  for  your  excellent 
advice  concerning  my  gout ;  I  will  strictly  follow  it,  and  not 
fail  to  dilute  my  wine  with  water,  as  it  is  an  excruciating 
malady.  Yet  it  might  still  be  borne,  if  only  it  did  not  grow 
worse." 

But  it  grew  worse  and  worse,  and  at  last  so  bad,  that 
Maximilian  had  recourse  to  hazardous  cures.  In  the  autumn 
of  1576  he  attended  the  Diet  of  Ratisbon,  where  his  son 
Rodolph  was  just  being  elected  King  of  the  Romans.  Here 
Maximilian  died  suddenly  on  the  12th  of  October,  1576,  in 
the  fiftieth  year  of  his  life  and  the  thirteenth  of  his  reign. 
He  was  the  last  good  ruler  whom  Austria  had  under  the  old 
Habsburg  dynasty.  A  famous  quack  of  Ulm,  of  the  name  of 
Magdalen  Streicher,  had  given  him  an  elixir  of  reported 
miraculous  virtues ;  but,  as  John  Crato,  his  body  physician, 
foretold,  he  survived  the  effects  of  the  nostrum  only  a  few 
days. 

A  report,  certainly  quite  unsubstantiated,  was  current, 
that  the  Jesuits  had  poisoned  the  Emperor  for  fear  that  he 
should  at  last  yield  too  much  in  favour  of  the  Protestants. 
According  to  the  statement  of  the  imperial  postmaster-general, 
Hans  Wollzogen,  in  a  letter  written  immediately  after  the 
Emperor's  death  to  the  imperial  ambassador  at  Constanti- 
nople, Baron  Ungnad,  Cardinal  Christopher  Madruzzi  of 
Trent  had  administered  the  poison  to  Maximilian  in  "  a 
Genoese  soup,"  as  far  back  as  the  time  previous  to  the 
Smalcalde  war,  when  Maximilian  returned  from  Spain.  At 
the  opening  of  the  body,  a  black  substance  as  hard  as  stone 
was  found  in  his  heart.  The  physicians  attributed  to  it  the 
Emperor's  suffering  sometimes  so  violently  from  palpitation 
as  to  lie  like  dead  for  hours  together. 

The  letter  of  Wollzogen  to  Baron  Ungnad  ^  contains  the 

1  It  is  given  in  extenso  in  Stephen  Gerlach's  "  Turkish  Diary,"  pub- 
lished at  Frankfort,  1674,  Gerlach  was  almoner  to  the  embassy  at 
Constantinople  at  the  time  of  Maximilian's  death. 


HIS    BURIAL  20I 

following  remarkable  details  concerning  the  Emperor's  death 
at  Ratisbon : 

"  When  his  Majesty  grew  weaker  and  weaker,  and  fears  were  enter- 
tained for  his  Hfe,  the  gentlemen  and  councillors  of  the  court  were  not 
allowed  to  speak  to  him  about  his  will  and  other  things,  because  of  their 
not  being  quite  without  blemish  in  the  matter  of  religion.  But  the  old 
Princess  of  Bavaria'  ventured  to  remind  his  Majesty  that,  as  life  was 
uncertain,  it  might  be  advisable  to  make  his  will,  to  confess  himself,  and 
to  receive  the  sacrament.  He  would  not  listen  to  her,  but  sent  her  away 
with  unkind  speech.  Afterwards  his  son,  the  Archduke  Matthias,  en- 
treated him  to  think  of  his  salvation,  and  not  to  neglect  himself;  to  whom 
he  made  answer,  '  My  son,  all  this  is  needless  ;  I  hope  through  the  mercy 
of  God  and  his  merits  to  be  saved  as  surely  as  you  can  be.  I  have  con- 
fessed all  my  sins  to  Christ,  and  thrown  them  on  his  passion  and  death ; 
and  I  am  sure  that  they  are  forgiven,  and  I  do  not  need  anything  else. 
Thereupon  the  Bishop  of  Neustadt,  his  almoner,  earnestly  pointed  out  to 
him  the  merit  and  atonement  of  Christ,  asking  him  whether  his  Majesty 
would  live  and  die  on  it,  to  which  he  answered, '  Yes,  and  not  otherwise.' 

"  After  his  death  he  was  dressed  in  his  usual  clothes,  with  the  collar 
of  the  Golden  Fleece  round  his  neck.  In  this  guise  he  was  laid  out  on 
black  velvet  for  three  days  with  his  face  uncovered,  and  crowds  of  people 
were  admitted  to  see  him. 

"  The  body,  after  being  embalmed,  was  carried  to  the  cathedral  with- 
out any  further  ceremonies  beyond  a  funeral  sermon  and  singing  a  few 
psalms,  the  choir  being  hung  with  black  cloth.  A  boat  was  prepared  for 
the  reception  of  the  cofhn,  which  was  placed  in  it  under  the  care  of  his 
chaplains.  He  was  first  conveyed  to  Linz,  and  from  thence  to  Bohemia, 
the  Austrians  and  Bohemians  having  disputed  for  the  honour  of  having 
him  buried  among  them.  The  Bohemians  carried  the  day,  and  he  was 
taken  to  Prague  to  the  monastery  of  St.  James." 

3. — The  family  of  the  Emperor  Maximilian  II. 

The  Empress  of  Maximilian  IL,  Mary,  the  pious  daughter 
of  Charles  V.,  immediately  after  the  burial  of  her  royal 
husband,  retired  to  Spain  ;  she  wished  to  die  on  pure  Catholic 
ground.  She  survived  Maximilian  by  twenty-seven  years, 
dying,  at  the  age  of  seventy-five,  in  1603.  She  was  the 
admiration  and  delight  of  the  Jesuits ;  and  a  saying  is  recorded 
of  Pope  Pius  v.,  the  same  who  in  1567  issued  the  famous  bull 
In  Co^na  Domini  against  the  heretics,  that  "  he  had  sufficient 
information  concerning  her  to  canonise  her,  if  it  were  just  and 
proper  to  do  so  during  her  lifetime."  Her  very  considerable 
revenues  in  Spain  were  left  to  the  Jesuits'  college  in  Madrid. 

Maximilian  had  by  his  wife  not  less  than  sixteen  children, 
nine  sons  and  seven  daughters. 

X  Anne,  daughter  of  Ferdinand  I.  and  grandmother  of  Ferdinand  II. 


202  MAXIMILIAN     II. 

I,  2.  The  two  archdukes,  Rodolph  II.,  born  in  1552,  and 
Matthias,  born  in  1557,  succeeded  to  the  imperial  crown. 

3.  Archduke  Ernest,  born  in  1553.  He  was  for  eight  years 
with  his  brother  Rodolph  in  Spain.  Count  Khevenhiiller 
describes  him  as  "taking  after  his  father,  gay  and  jovial." 
He  was  during  Rodolph's  reign  governor  of  Austria,  and  from 
1593  ^o  1595  regent  of  the  Spanish  Netherlands.  He  died  in 
1595,  at  Brussels,  when  just  going  to  be  married  to  Donna 
Isabella,  the  favourite  daughter  of  King  Philip  II.  of  Spain. 

4.  Maximilian,  born  in  1558.  His  career  was  a  very 
chequered  one.  He  was  twice  elected  King  of  Poland ;  first, 
in  1576,  against  Stephen  Bathory,  and  again,  after  the  death 
of  this  prince,  in  1587.  Both  times  he  was  unable  to  maintain 
the  election.  In  1588  the  Poles  even  took  him  prisoner  after 
having  defeated  him,  and  he  was  released  only  after  a  year's 
captivity.  Since  1585  he  was  grand  master  of  the  Teutonic 
order,  and  in  1600  he  was  entrusted  with  the  government  of 
the  Tyrol  and  of  the  Swabian  provinces  of  Austria.  He  died, 
unmarried,  in  1618;  according  to  others,  in  1620. 

5.  Albert,  born  in  1559.  At  the  age  of  eleven  he  accom- 
panied his  sister  Anne,  who  in  1570  was  married  to  Philip  II., 
to  Spain,  where  he  was  educated,  and  became  a  favourite  with 
his  brother-in-law.  In  1583  he  was  appointed  viceroy  of 
Portugal ;  in  1587  he  became  a  cardinal,  and  in  1594  arch- 
bishop of  Toledo  and  primate  of  Spain.  Five  years  later, 
after  having  received  a  dispensation  to  quit  holy  orders,  he 
married  Donna  Isabella,  the  princess  who  had  been  intended 
for  his  brother  Ernest ;  at  the  same  time  he  was  appointed 
regent  of  the  Netherlands.  He  died  without  any  issue  in 
1621. 

6.  Wenceslaus,  born  in  1561.  He  was  sent  with  Albert, 
in  1570,  to  Spain  ;  but  died,  at  the  early  age  of  seventeen,  in 
1578,  as  grand  prior  of  the  Maltese  order  in  Castile. 

7.  8,  9.     The  three  other  princes  died  in  infancy. 

None  of  the  sons  of  Maximilian  II.  leaving  any  direct 
heirs,  the  elder  line  of  the  house  of  Habsburg  ended  with  the 
Emperor  Matthias. 

Of  the   seven   daughters   of   MaximiUan   IL,   two  were 


HIS     FAMILY  203 

married  to  the  most  zealous  Papist  princes  of  those  times — 
Anne,  in  1570,  at  the  age  of  twenty-one,  to  Philip  II.  of 
Spain;  and  in  the  same  year,  Elizabeth,  aged  sixteen,  to 
Charles  IX.  of  France.  A  third  daughter,  Margaret,  died  in 
a  convent  in  Spain  ;  the  others  in  infancy. 

Maximilian  II.  had,  before  marriage,  a  natural  daughter, 
Helena  Scharseg.  Her  mother,  a  Countess  Anne  of  Ost- 
friesland,  was  lady  of  the  bedchamber  to  his  mother.  The 
daughter  is  described  as  a  pattern  of  beauty  and  sense. 
She  was  married  to  a  Carinthian  nobleman.  Baron  Andrew 
Everard  von  Rauber,  who  won  her  as  his  prize  in  a  match 
against  a  gigantic  Spaniard,  whom,  according  to  the  terms  of 
the  contest,  he  put  in  a  sack  and  thus  deposited  at  the  feet 
of  the  Emperor.  The  baron  was  likewise  a  giant  in  size  and 
strength.  His  portrait,  still  extant  in  the  Nuremberg  Gallery, 
represents  him  with  the  remarkable  appendage  of  a  beard, 
carefully  plaited,  and  reaching  down  to  the  ground,  and 
from  thence  back  to  the  girdle,  with  a  legend  stating  its 
dimensions. 

Ferdinand  I.  and  Maximilian  II.  were  the  last  Emperors 
who  (the  former  from  necessity,  the  latter  by  his  own  free 
will)  followed  a  moderate  and  a  tolerant  policy  with  regard  to 
religion  and  to  the  Reformation.  Under  Rodolph  II.  the 
counter-reformation  already  began. 


204  RODOLPH     II. 


CHAPTER  V 

RoDOLPH    II. (1576-1612). 

1 . — His  cotivt  at  Prague — His  antiquarian,  alchemical,  and  magic 

hobbies. 

RoDOLPH  II.,  eldest  son  of  Maximilian  II.,  was  born  in 
1552  at  Vienna.  Like  his  father,  he  was  brought  up  in 
Spain  at  the  court  of  Philip  II.,  where  he  and  his  brother 
Ernest  remained  from  1563  to  1571,  in  which  latter  year 
they  made  room  for  their  two  younger  brothers,  Albert  and 
Wenceslaus,  who  had  arrived  at  Madrid  the  year  before  with 
their  sister  Anne.  PhiHp  at  that  time  had  no  sons,  the  death 
of  Don  Carlos  having  taken  place  in  1568.  Rodolph  was  in 
charge  of  Adam  Dietrichstein,  who,  going  as  ambassador  of 
MaximiHan  II.  to  the  Spanish  court,  acted  as  chief  governor 
of  the  prince.  This  nobleman  was  married  to  a  Spanish  lady, 
a  duchess  of  Cordova.  Colonel  Wolf  von  Rumpf  acted  under 
him  as  governor  of  the  prince.  The  plan  of  the  two  courts, 
which,  however,  was  not  realised,  was  to  marry  the  princes 
Rodolph  and  Ernest  to  the  two  daughters  of  Philip,  Donna 
Isabella  and  Donna  Catharina.  Rodolph  stayed  long  enough 
in  Spain  to  see  the  rise  of  the  Escurial ;  the  first  outbreak  of 
the  revolution  in  the  Netherlands  also,  and  the  death  of  the 
unfortunate  Don  Carlos,  who  was  accused  of  having  plotted 
against  the  life  of  his  father,  took  place  during  his  residence 
at  the  court  of  Philip.  All  these  events  and  incidents  left 
a  deep  impression  in  the  soul  of  Rodolph.  To  judge  from 
Dietrichstein's  repeated  and  earnest  representations,  the  long 
stay  at  that  gloomy  and  ever-suspecting  court  had  a  decidedly 
baneful  effect  on  Rodolph.  Whereas  formerly  he  had  been 
gentle,  good-natured,  timid,  but  a  lover  of  justice,  he  now  was 


HIS    COURT    AT    PRAGUE  205 

unmanageable,  moody,  gloomy,  and  at  times  breaking  out  into 
fits  of  the  fiercest  passion.  In  his  twentieth  year  he  came 
back  to  Germany,  and  in  1572  he  was  crowned  as  King  of 
Hungary,  and  two  years  after  as  King  of  Bohemia  and  of  the 
Romans.  His  father  having  died  in  1576,  Rodolph,  like  him, 
established  his  court  at  Prague. 

Unmistakable  symptoms  of  that  deep  melancholy  which 
had  twice  before  appeared  in  his  family  manifested  themselves 
in  Rodolph  before  he  had  completed  his  twenty-fifth  year. 
Yet  it  was  not  the  affecting  sadness  of  Jane  of  Arragon,  who 
could  never  turn  her  thoughts  from  that  beloved  husband 
whom  she  had  murdered  out  of  jealousy ;  nor  was  it  the 
resigned  tranquil  greatness  of  Charles  V.,  retiring  from  the 
vanity  of  all  earthly  things  into  the  pious  solitude  of  Yuste. 
In  Rodolph's  case  it  was  rather  a  state  of  moody  inanition 
and  of  hardened  and  perverse  waywardness,  sometimes  even 
of  downright  insanity.  His  principal  characteristic  was  in- 
dolence; in  this  respect  he  was  the  Emperor  Frederic  III. 
over  again.  As  the  latter  idled  away  his  days  at  Wienerisch 
Neustadt,  so  did  Rodolph  at  Prague.  With  all  the  impatience 
of  a  silly  and  naughty  child,  he  kicked  against  everything 
in  the  shape  of  public  business ;  this  deeply  rooted  aversion 
would,  however,  at  once  give  way — for  a  while  at  least — as 
soon  as  he  saw  anyone  else  actively  and  zealously  taking  the 
affairs  of  government  in  hand.  Rodolph  was  then  sure  to  be 
seized  with  envy  and  the  gnawing  pangs  of  jealousy. 

Rodolph  thus  for  the  greater  part  of  his  time  lived  com- 
pletely unmindful  of  the  affairs  of  his  own  States  and  of  the 
Empire.  He  never  held  another  Diet  after  the  one  of  Ratisbon 
in  1594,  which  the  breaking  out  of  the  Turkish  war  forced 
upon  him.  He  never  after  his  accession  came  to  Hungary, 
nor  even  to  Vienna,  where  his  brother  Ernest  resided  as 
governor.  He  shut  himself  up  in  his  beautiful  palace,  the 
Hradschin  in  Prague,  where  he  had  established  his  museum 
of  art  and  curiosities,  his  alchemical  laboratory,  and  his  magic 
kitchen.  When  the  German  princes  sent  ambassadors  to 
him,  he  had  them  apprised  that  he  was  "just  now  very  fairly 
engaged  with  loads  of  other  business."     In  the  same  way  the 


206  RODOLPH     II. 

envoys  of  Hungary  and  of  the  Austrian  Diet  had  to  wait 
years  and  years  for  an  audience  in  vain.  The  governors  and 
generals  were  left  without  instructions,  and  had  to  make  shift 
as  well  as  they  could.  Curiosities  of  every  description,  and 
the  fanciful  pursuits  of  alchemy  and  magic,  were  the  only 
objects  he  took  any  interest  in  ;  these  hobbies  took  up  all  his 
time.  He  had  great  treasures,  but  carefully  stowed  them 
away  and  locked  them  up  in  his  chests.  It  was  a  matter 
of  the  utmost  indifference  to  him  that  the  councillors  and 
courtiers  could  not  get  their  pay,  that  sometimes  even  actual 
want  made  itself  felt  at  the  imperial  court ;  an  example  of 
which  is  recorded  in  a  letter  of  the  Bavarian  resident  minister, 
Boden,  to  the  Duke  Maximilian  of  Bavaria,  his  master  (dated 
igth  of  August,  1606) :  "To-day  the  chief  people  of  the  Em- 
peror's household  have  not  had  enough  to  eat,  there  being  no 
money  to  make  purchases  for  the  kitchen." 

Rodolph  was  in  Germany  the  first  of  those  amateurs  who 
have  a  mania  for  collecting  all  sorts  of  curiosities  of  all  times 
from  every  part  of  the  world,  whereby  many  works  of  ancient 
art  have  been  preserved,  just  as  the  Codices  have  been  by  the 
monks.  After  the  peace  of  Westphalia  this  mania  of  collecting 
curiosities  grew  a  fashion  among  the  German  princes,  great 
and  small ;  but  what  at  first  was  a  mere  fancy  and  a  pleasurable 
pastime,  became  afterwards  an  important  agent  in  the  promo- 
tion of  art,  literature,  and  science ;  people,  after  having  so  long 
hunted  after  the  curiosities  of  bygone  ages,  began  to  feel  an 
interest  in  the  endeavours  and  productions  of  their  own  times. 

Rodolph's  collections  comprised,  besides  the  treasures  of 
art,  many  rare  specimens  of  natural  history,  minerals,  exotic 
plants,  foreign  birds  and  animals,  eagles,  lions,  and  leopards ; 
which  he  knew  how  to  tame  to  such  a  degree  that  they  would 
freely  walk  about  with  him  in  his  rooms.^  But  his  principal 
fancy  was  for  Roman  and  Greek  antiquities,  which  his  agents 

1  The  Welsers  of  Augsburg,  who  for  1,200,000  florins,  lent  by  Bartho- 
lomew, the  grandfather  of  the  beautiful  Philippina,  to  Charles  V.,  had 
received  from  this  Emperor  a  grant  of  land  on  the  western  coast  of  South 
America,  and  had  founded  the  town  of  Valparaiso  in  Chili,  used  to  send  to 
Rodolph  from  thence  many  Indian  curiosities,  until  the  Spaniards  took  the 
country  from  them. 


HIS     HOBBIES  207 

purchased  for  him  in  Italy.    Most  of  the  invaluable  contents  of 
the  matchless  imperial  collection  of  coins,  gems,  and  cameos 
at  Vienna  are  owing  to  Rodolph.    Among  others,  he  acquired 
two  of  the  most  precious  articles  of  classical  vertu  in  the  world : 
the  magnificent  sarcophagus  with  the  battle  of  the  Amazons, 
which  he  got  from  the  Fuggers  at  Augsburg;  and  the  even 
more  valuable  large  tazza   of   onyx  with  the   apotheosis  of 
Augustus,  for  which  he  is  said  to  have  paid  15,000  ducats. 
The  knights  of  the  hospital  of  St.  John  at  Jerusalem  brought 
it  during  the  Crusades  from  the  East  to  Europe,  where  it  owed 
its  preservation  in  the  nunnery  of  Poissy  near  Paris  to  the 
pious  illusion  that  it  represented  the  crucifixion  of  Christ. 
The  so-called  Rodolphine  Treasury  (museum)  at  Prague  en- 
joyed a  world-wide  celebrity ;  unfortunately,  it  has,  with  most 
unpardonable  carelessness,  been  scattered  during   the  "  en- 
lightened" eighteenth  century,  at  the  time  when  Joseph  11. 
put  down  the  monasteries.    Joseph  had  issued  a  decree  which 
public  indignation  obliged  him  soon  to  revoke ;  the  venerable 
old  castle  of  the  Hradschin  in   Prague  was  to  be  converted 
into  barracks,  for  which  purpose  it  was  to  be  empty  by  a 
certain  day.     The  statues  were  sold.    A  torso,  finding  no  pur- 
chaser, was  flung  down  through  the  window  into  the  garden  of 
the  palace ;  an  oculist  at  Vienna,  of  the  name  of  Barth,  at  last 
bought  it  for  six  siebenzehner  (about  three  shillings).     It  was 
no  other  than  the  celebrated  Ilioneus,  which  is  now  in  the 
Glyptotheca  at  Munich,  and  which  the  King,  at  that  time 
Crown  Prince  Louis  of  Bavaria,  bought  at  the  congress  of 
Vienna  for  6,000  ducats.     The  ancient  coins  were  sold  by 
weight.     In  an  inventory  which  was  drawn  up  of  the  collec- 
tions, and  which  was  preserved  at  the  Schönfeld  Museum  in 
Vienna,  there  is  one  lot,  "a  naked  female,  bitten  by  a  mad 
goose."     It  is  not  very  likely  that  anyone  would  recognise  in 
this  description  the  "  Leda  with  the  Swan,"  by  Titian. 

Rodolph  possessed  the  first  picture-gallery  of  any  consider- 
able extent  in  Germany ;  in  which  there  were,  among  others, 
the  noble  Correggios  now  in  Vienna  and  Berlin.  They  were 
a  present  from  the  first  Duke  Frederic  Gonzaga  of  Mantua  to 
the  Emperor  Charles  V.,  through  whose  daughter  Mary,  the 


208  RUDOLPH     II. 

mother  of  Rodolph,  they  probably  came  to  Prague.  The  two 
Correggios  now  at  BerHn,  lo  and  Leda,  had  a  remarkable 
fate.  They  were,  in  the  first  instance,  during  the  Thirty 
Years'  War,  taken  from  Prague  as  plunder  by  the  Swedes ; 
then  went  with  Queen  Christina  to  Rome ;  and  from  thence 
passed  into  the  Orleans  Gallery,  at  the  dispersion  of  which 
they  found  their  way  to  Berlin. 

Heraldry,  and  what  pertains  to  it  in  the  art  of  engraving 
seals  and  cutting  dies  of  coins  and  medals,  appears  to  have 
been  cultivated  in  the  times  of  Rodolph  II.  with  such  remark- 
able proficiency  as  to  justify  the  supposition  that  the  Emperor 
himself  took  a  particular  interest  in  these  matters.  A  great 
number  of  letters  of  nobility,  and  of  heraldic  diplomas,  date 
from  the  reign  of  Rodolph  II.  The  seals,  especially  those 
appended  to  the  grants  of  princely  fiefs  and  honours,  are 
executed  in  the  most  ornamented  Gothic  style  with  such  neat- 
ness and  elegance  as  to  remind  one  of  the  contemporaneous 
Elizabethan  style  of  architecture  in  England.  The  Rodolphine 
coins,  compared  with  those  of  the  preceding  and  succeeding 
reigns,  appear  like  an  oasis  in  a  desert.  He  must  have  em- 
ployed the  most  distinguished  masters  to  engrave  his  seals 
and  to  cut  the  dies  of  his  coins. 

Rodolph  was  called  by  his  courtiers  the  second  Solomon. 
He  indeed  was  wise  enough  to  do  away  with  jesters  at  his 
court.  In  this  he  took  the  lead  of  all  other  potentates. 
Rodolph,  the  pupil  of  Philip  II.,  was,  like  his  royal  tutor, 
possessed  of  a  store  of  knowledge  by  no  means  common  even 
among  professional  scholars.  He  spoke  six  languages :  Ger- 
man and  Bohemian,  Spanish,  Italian,  French,  and  Latin. 
He  was  particularly  well  versed  in  mechanics  and  in  all  the 
mathematical  and  physical  sciences,  and  more  especially  so 
in  the  occult  lore  of  astrology,  magic,  and  alchemy.  This  is 
fully  proved  by  his  letters  published  at  Vienna  in  1771.  He 
was  himself  a  very  skilful  practical  mechanician.  His  taste 
with  regard  to  the  fine  arts  was  of  a  very  high  order ;  he  was 
not  only  a  collector  of  pictures,  but  he  painted  remarkably 
well  himself,  especially  portraits.  He  kept  up  an  uninter- 
rupted correspondence  with  all  the  learned  people  throughout 


;w 


MARRIAGE    OF   HENRY   IV  OF   FRANCE 
AND  MARIE  DE  MED  I  CIS 


After  the  painting'  in  the  Mi/see  du  Loiivre  by 
P.-P.   Rubens 


RODÜLPH     II. 

of  Rodolph,  they  probablv  came  to  Prague, 
now  at  1  Leda,  had  a  renic. 

y  were,  i._  ,  nstance,  during  the   i..    . 

ars'  War,  taken  from  Prague  as  plunder  by  the  Swedes ; 
th  '  '-  ■"     on  Christina  to  Rome;  and  from  thence 

pa-  ms  Gallery,  at  the  dispersion  of  which 

they  found  their  way  to  Berlin. 

Heraldry,  and  what  pertains  to  it  in  the  art  of  engraving 
seals  and  cutting  dies  of  coins  and  medals,  appears  to  have 
been  cultivated  in  the  times  of  Rodolph  II.  with  such  remark- 
able proficiency  as  to  justify  the  supposition  that  the  Emperor 
himself  took  a  particular  interest  in  these  matters.     A  great 
number  of  letters  of  nobility,  and  of  heraldic  diplomas,  date 
from  the  reign  of  Rodolph  II.     The  seals,  especially  those 
appenaSmk^ffe  gigJit^W  ^ö!Ma3^fi6^ai^:i^lii§i^^\ltre 
executed  in  the  mmt,^maamenJ:e4  Q9^^^-^y\^AY\''-^  such  neat- 
ness and  elegance  as  To  remmo" oire  üttub  conremporaneous 
Liizabethan  style  of  architecture  in  England.   The  Rodolphine 
co^r'^,  compared  with  those  of  the  preceding  and  succeeding 
tS^'^^t-vfe  äB  ^^*iMn^?^^d§sei|j^-5,^^^m^T^^t4^^g^em. 
'    '  - 1  distinguishex]  jna^e^  to  engrave  his  seals 
-  es  oi  his  corns. 

•d  by  his  cov  '  Solomon, 

eiiough  to  c  ers  at  his 

.     the  lead  of  all  other  potentates. 
'■  '   'T  ,  was,  like  his  r'' -    '  "  "- 
bv  no  means  coj 


11 

in  ; 

fully  proved  by  his  >  tie 

was  himself  a  very  ti.   >  w.     iüs  taste 

with  regard  to  the  fine  ar  order ;  he  was 

not  only  a  collector  of  :jv.i  ho  pu.uleJ  i                 !y 

well  himself,  especially  ,  .     He  kept  up  a'             jr- 
rupted  correspondence  with  all  the  learned  people  throughout 


■€/^iyufJtC-isoiiy/y,  5  MtM-^itJi,., 


9,ifyUfM-tMff^  S.J4m*VMf  . 


DR.    JOHN     DEE,     THE    ALCHEMIST  209 

the  Holy  Roman  Empire.  Many  a  scholar  of  all  the  four 
faculties  was  raised  by  him  to  the  nobility  of  the  Empire, 
or  nominated  Comes  Palatiniis,  or  poet-laureate.  He  even 
ennobled  learned  Lutheran  divines,  as,  for  instance,  in  1590, 
the  son-in-law  of  Lucas  Cranach,  Dr.  Polycarpus  Leyser, 
professor  at  Wittenberg,  and  afterwards  first  preacher  at  the 
court  of  Dresden. 

But  the  people  whom  Rodolph  prized  above  all  others 
were  those  who  ministered  to  his  fancy  for  everything  that 
was  curious  or  wonderful.  There  were  always  living  at  his 
court  a  number  of  clock  and  instrument  makers  and  painters, 
with  whom  he  used  to  work  ;  a  host  of  astronomers  and 
astrologers,  who  had  to  draw  up  horoscopes,  to  make  pro- 
phetical almanacs,  and  to  calculate  astrological  points  for 
him.  He  kept  up  a  constant  intercourse  with  alchemists, 
Rosicrucians,  and  adepts  of  every  sort,  whose  ranks,  it  is 
true,  in  several  instances,  comprised  not  a  few  impostors, 
quacks,  and  needy  adventurers.  These  conjurors  undertook 
to  prophesy  from  magnetic  mirrors  or  from  boiling  water; 
they  promised  to  find  for  the  Emperor  the  elixir  of  life  and 
the  philosopher's  stone ;  and,  even  more  than  that,  they 
gravely  engaged  in  experiments  to  produce  men,  actual 
human  beings,  in  the  crucible,  and  to  resuscitate  mummies. 

Dr.  John  Dee,  the  celebrated  English  alchemist  and  necro- 
mancer,  was  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  characters  among 
this  motley  crowd.  Rodolph  at  one  time  had  the  very 
highest  opinion  of  Dee.  Each  looked  upon  the  other  as  a 
great  magician,  and  they  were  not  a  little  afraid  of  each 
other.  Even  a  man  like  Count  Khevenhiiller  fully  believed 
that  Rodolph  saw  in  his  magic  mirror  the  remote  future,  and 
that  he  was  able  by  means  of  his  magnets  to  read  the  most 
hidden  thoughts  of  persons  living  at  a  distance.  When,  in 
1598,  Count  Adolphus  Schwarzenberg  had  taken  Raab  from 
the  Turks,  and  sent  Colonel  von  Buchheini  to  convey  the 
report  to  the  Emperor,  the  colonel  was  not  a  little  surprised 
at  finding  that  his  Majesty  was  already  cognisant  of  it. 
"The  Emperor,"  Count  Khevenhiiller  writes,  "told  him  that 
they  had  known  it  by  means  of  an  art,  taught  them  by  an 

VOL.    I  I^ 


210  RODOLPH     II. 

Englishman,  of  giving  signals  at  a  distance  by  moonlight  with 
two  mirrors  and  a  magnet ;  and  that  Schwarzenberg  had  had 
a  mirror  thus  prepared,  and  his  Majesty  another."  Dee 
returned  in  1590  to  London,  where  Queen  Elizabeth  gave 
him  a  pension,  As  James  I.,  being  a  despiser  of  the 
"  art  sublime,"  stopped  the  payment  of  the  pittance,  Dee 
prepared  to  leave  his  country  a  second  time,  when  death 
prevented  him.  He  died  at  Mortlake  in  1608,  at  the  age 
of  eighty-two. 

Edward  Kelly,  a  friend  and  coadjutor  of  Dee,  was  less 
lucky  with  Rodolph.  The  Emperor  at  first  created  him  a 
baron  of  Bohemia ;  but  when  afterwards  the  adept  was  either 
unwilling  or  unable  to  produce  gold,  he  was  in  1590,  by  the 
order  of  his  imperial  patron,  imprisoned  in  a  Bohemian 
castle,  where  he  remained  for  six  years.  Queen  Elizabeth, 
at  the  entreaties  of  Dee,  interceded  for  him,  but  in  vain.  At 
last  Kelly  tried  to  gain  his  liberty  by  his  own  efforts,  lower- 
ing himself  from  the  castle  by  a  rope  ;  but  he  broke  his 
leg  in  the  attempt,  and  died  soon  after  of  the  consequences 
of  the  fall. 

Of  itinerant  adepts,  who  from  time  to  time  made  their 
appearance  at  Rodolph's  court,  two  famous  Italians,  living  in 
the  grandest  style,  are  to  be  mentioned.  These  philosophers, 
who  during  the  last  half  of  the  sixteenth  century  were  the 
astonishment  of  the  whole  of  Europe,  bore  the  names  of 
Marco  Bragadino  and  Hieronymus  Scotto.  Marco  Braga- 
dino  was  a  native  of  Famagusta  in  Cyprus,  and  made  his 
appearance  at  several  German  courts,  where  he  presented 
himself  under  the  title  of  Count  "  Ilhistrissimns."  His  proper 
name  was  Mamugna.  He  was  of  Greek  extraction,  but  he 
represented  himself  as  the  son  of  Marco  Antonio  Bragadino, 
the  Venetian  governor  of  Famagusta,  who  at  the  fall  of  that 
place,  in  1571,  was  made  prisoner  and  killed  by  the  Turks. 
On  his  first  coming  out  as  an  adept  in  the  East,  he  went  by 
his  real  name  of  Mamugna.  In  1578  he  appeared  as  Conde 
Mamugnano  in  Italy,  and  showed  himself  with  the  greatest 
magnificence  in  the  circles  of  the  iiobili  at  Venice,  whom  he 
greatly  astonished   by   making  gold   at   the   Contarini  and 


HIS    ALCHEMISTS  211 

Dandolo  palaces.  In  1588  he  came  as  Conde  Marco  Braga- 
dino  to  Germany,  pretending  to  be  persecuted  by  his  family. 
Accompanied  by  two  large  black  bulldogs,  which  were  to 
convince  people  of  his  power  over  the  spirits,  he  arrived  at 
Prague.  Here  he  was  regarded  as  a  second  Paracelsus,  as 
he  treated  gold  like  brass  or  quicksilver,  giving  away  large 
lumps  of  it,  and  always  keeping  an  open  table.  This  Illus- 
trissimus,  however,  came  to  a  very  ignominious  end  at 
Munich,  whither  he  repaired  from  Prague.  His  deceptions 
having  been  found  out,  he  died  in  the  Bavarian  capital  on 
the  gallows,  in  1590. 

Even  a  greater  sensation  was  created  by  another  Italian, 
Count  Hieronymus  Scotto,  a  native  of  Parma.  Kheven- 
hiiller  expressly  states  that  the  whole  of  Europe  had  re- 
sounded with  the  achievements  of  this  man  of  wonders.  He 
travelled  in  Germany  from  1573,  showed  himself  at  Nurem- 
berg, Cologne,  and  other  places,  and  made  gold.  It  was  he 
who,  in  1583,  by  the  phantasmagoria  of  a  magic  mirror,  made 
the  Elector  of  Cologne,  Gerard  Truchsess,  fall  in  love  with 
the  beautiful  Countess  Agnes  of  Mansfeld,  for  which  that 
spiritual  prince  lost  his  see  and  his  country.  At  a  later 
period,  in  1592,  the  handsome,  clever,  and  insinuating  adven- 
turer earned  little  honour  at  Coburg,  where  he  succeeded  in 
ruining  the  Duchess  Ann,  the  wife  of  the  duke  and  daughter 
of  the  Elector  Augustus  of  Saxony.  The  unhappy  princess 
expiated  her  folly  by  a  captivity  of  twenty  years.  This 
Hieronymus  Scotto  was  a  frequent  and  ever-welcome  guest 
at  the  court  of  Prague. 

Rodolph's  physicians,  Thaddäus  von  Hayek,  Martin  Ruh- 
land,  and  Michael  Mayer,  were  likewise  celebrated  alchemists. 
Michael  Mayer,  a  native  of  Rendsburg  in  Holstein,  acted 
besides  as  private  secretary  of  the  Emperor,  and  also  was  a 
Comes  Palatinus  and  an  Eques  Auratus.  He  was  Rodolph's 
favourite  writer,  recording  the  Emperor's  own  ideas  and 
experiences ;  he  was,  moreover,  a  Rosicrucian  and  a  very 
fertile  author.  His  works,  bearing  the  mysterious  title 
**  Chevalier  Imperial,"  created  an  immense  sensation.  They 
were  most  of  them  published  at  Frankfort  on  the  Maine, 

14 — 2 


212  RODOLPH     II. 

and  some  were  translated  into  French.  Having  afterwards 
entered  the  service  of  the  Landgrave  Maurice  of  Hesse  Cassel, 
jNIayer  died  at  Magdeburg  in  1622.  Rodolph's  valets  were 
chiefly  engaged  as  assistants  in  his  unceasing  alchemical 
operations.  One  of  them,  Mordecai  de  Delle,  a  native  of 
Vitri,  in  the  duchy  of  Milan,  acted  the  part  of  court  poet, 
putting,  for  the  amusement  of  his  master,  all  the  stories  of 
adepts  into  German  rhymes,  which  were  exquisitely  illus- 
trated by  some  of  the  court  painters.  All  itinerant  alchemists 
were  welcome  at  Rodolph's  court ;  he  always  had  some  of 
them  with  him,  and  rewarded  them  most  liberally  if  the 
experiments  were  to  his  satisfaction.  Those  who  did  not 
come  of  their  own  accord  he  sent  for  from  all  parts  of  the 
Holy  Roman  Empire.  Thus  he  once  ordered  the  magistrate 
of  Strassburg  to  send  to  him,  under  an  escort,  PhiHp  Jacob 
Güstenhöver ;  and,  when  the  adept  made  his  escape  from 
Prague,  Rodolph  had  him  brought  back  by  force.  With 
alchemists  of  note  in  foreign  countries  the  Emperor  kept  up 
an  active  correspondence,  and  he  was  generally  called  by  the 
masters  of  the  craft  "  the  Prince  of  Alchemy,"  the  German 
^^  Hermes  Trismegishis."  It  has  been  considered  as  a  proof 
of  his  having  really  been  an  adept,  that  after  his  death  there 
were  found  among  his  effects,  besides  an  ash-grey  tincture, 
eighty-four  hundredweights  of  gold  and  sixty  hundredweights 
of  silver  melted  down  into  ingots  of  the  form  of  bricks. 

Yet  there  were  some  scholars  of  the  highest  celebrity  and 
merit  at  Rodolph's  court.  Among  these,  three  astronomers, 
the  two  Danes,  Tycho  de  Brahe  and  Longomontanus,  and  the 
great  Würtemberger,  John  Kepler,  and  the  Bohemian  his- 
torian, Wenceslaus  Hagec,  are  to  be  mentioned.  Kepler  by 
himself  is  one  of  the  greatest  names  of  any  time.  He  pro- 
claimed to  the  world  from  Prague  the  discovery  which  has 
become  the  foundation  of  the  whole  system  of  modern 
astronomy,  the  discovery  of  the  planets  moving  in  elliptic 
orbits  round  the  sun.  The  book  "  Nova  Astronomia  de 
Stella  Martis,"  Kepler's  most  celebrated  work,  was  pub- 
lished in  i6og.  He  lived  twelve  years  at  Rodolph's  court, 
having  been  appointed  after  the  death  of  Tycho  de  Brahe, 


MILITARY    ADVENTURERS  213 

in  1601,  as  **  His  Imperial  Majesty's  Mathematician,"  with 
the  modest  salary  of  1,500  florins,  which  was  not  always  even 
regularly  paid  to  him  ;  so  that,  having  afterwards  entered  the 
service  of  Wallenstein,  he  had  to  go  and  solicit  for  the  pay- 
ment of  the  arrears  to  Ratisbon,  where  the  Emperor  Fer- 
dinand at  that  time  resided  with  his  court.  And  there  the 
great  man,  as  is  well  known,  died  of  hunger  in  1630. 
Kepler's  principal  work,  written  at  Prague,  was  the  cele- 
brated Rodolphine  Tables,  thus  called  in  honour  of  the 
Emperor.  Besides  this,  he  published,  for  the  benefit  of  his 
patron,  in  1601,  the  "  Fundamenta  Astrologiae  ;  "  and  in  1608, 
the  "  Explicit  Report  of  the  Comet  of  September,  1607,  and 
its  Bodings "  (the  celebrated  one  of  Halley) ;  to  which  is 
added,  *'A  new,  curious,  but  well-founded  Discourse  as  to 
what  Comets  really  are,  and  how  far  they  are  meant  to 
instruct  Mankind ;  "  and  in  1610,  "  Warning  to  some  Divines, 
Physicians,  and  Philosophers,  whilst  justly  rejecting  Astro- 
logical Superstition,  not  to  pluck  out  the  Wheat  with  the 
Tares." 

2. — The  Italians  at  the  imperial  court — First  beginnings  of 
military  nile — The  first  camarilla  of  clerks  and  valets. 

Ever  since  the  days  of  Charles  V.  and  Ferdinand  I., 
Spanish  and  Italian  families  had  been  transplanted  to  the 
Austrian  court ;  as,  for  instance,  the  Spanish  family  De 
Hoyos,  whose  ancestor  came,  in  1520,  with  Ferdinand,  and 
whose  descendants  are  still  among  the  high  nobility  of 
Austria;  and  the  Italian  Tyrolese  Madruzzi,  whose  name 
is  frequently  mentioned  as  connected  with  the  court  intrigues 
of  those  times.  But  when,  in  1593,  after  a  truce  of  twenty- 
five  years,  subsequent  to  Soleyman's  death  before  Szigeth, 
the  Turkish  war  broke  out  again,  a  number  of  Spanish, 
Italian,  and  also  Walloon  adventurers  and  fortune-himters 
entered  the  imperial  army,  which,  owing  to  the  Emperor's 
utter  indifference  to  business,  they  soon  got  completely  under 
their  own  control.  This  gave  rise  in  Austria  to  that  peculiar 
military  rule  which,  after  being  more  fully  developed  in  the 


214  RODOLPH    II. 

Thirty  Years'  War,  reached  its  fearful  climax  in  the  de 
generate  times  of  the  Turkish  and  Hungarian  campaigns 
under  Leopold  I.  Among  the  military  adventurers  under 
Rodolph  are  to  be  mentioned  the  fierce,  rapacious  Italians 
Basta  and  Belgiojoso,  the  rough  Venetian  Count  Rombaldo 
Collalto,  the  Spanish  commander  Don  Balthazar  Maradas, 
and  the  Walloon  Dampierre.  The  three  latter  have  every 
one  of  them  played  a  conspicuous  part  in  the  Thirty  Years' 
War.  All  these  officers  made  their  career,  or  at  least  began 
it,  in  Hungary. 

Some  Croat  generals  also  began  at  that  time  to  rise  into 
eminence ;  among  others  the  Kollonitch  and  the  Isolanis. 
Baron  John  Mark  Isolani,  the  father  of  the  celebrated  Croat 
general,  descending  from  a  family  of  the  island  of  Cyprus, 
gained  a  victory  over  the  Turks  as  early  as  1596.  The 
Kollonitch  were  in  1638  raised  by  the  Emperor  Ferdinand  HI. 
to  the  rank  of  counts,  and  under  Leopold  L,  in  1676,  all  of 
them  left  the  Lutheran  for  the  Romish  faith.  One  of  them 
who,  during  the  siege  of  Vienna  by  the  Turks  in  1683,  was 
bishop  of  that  see,  wielded  his  pastoral  power  with  such 
energy  and  heroism  that  the  Grand  Vizier  threatened  to  have 
his  head  cut  off  if  he  could  get  hold  of  him. 

But  it  was  chiefly  the  Italians  who,  in  the  time  of  Rodolph, 
began  to  gain  a  firm  footing  at  court  and  to  form  a  strong 
and  organised  party.  We  find  already  a  great  number  of 
Italians  even  among  those  who  were  nearest  the  Emperor. 
His  master  of  the  horse  was  Count  Claudio  Trivulzi ;  his 
gentlemen  of  the  bedchamber  the  two  Maltese  knights, 
Ottavio  Spinola,  of  a  Genoese  family,  and  Baron  Colloredo. 
Of  the  latter  family  there  were  four  in  the  imperial  service, 
one  of  whom  died  in  England  in  1586  as  imperial  ambassador 
to  Queen  Elizabeth.  Besides  these  we  find  belonging  to  the 
household  of  the  Emperor,  in  different  capacities,  as  cup- 
bearers, keepers  of  the  privy  purse,  &c.,  the  names  of  Gon- 
zaga,  Montecuculi,  Trivulzi,  Caretto,  Millesimo,  Malaspina, 
Strasoldo,  Castaldo.  These  courtiers  formed  the  nucleus  of 
the  Italian  party  which  under  Matthias,  and  especially  under 
Ferdinand  II.,  was  swelled  by  a  great  many  new  arrivals. 


HIS     MATRIMONIAL    SCHEMES  215 

Besides  the  Italians  there  was  another  sort  of  people  at 
court,  who,  being  always  about  the  Emperor,  enjoyed  a  great 
share  of  his  favour,  and  thereby  acquired  great  influence. 
These  people  were  the  lower  personal  attendants,  part  of 
whose  business  it  was  to  assist  him  in  his  alchemical  opera- 
tions. Some  of  them,  like  Mordecai  de  Delle,  were  likewise 
Italians.  Rodolph,  for  the  very  reason  of  his  hving  in  such 
complete  retirement,  wanted  officious  informers  to  supply  him 
with  news.  This  was  done  by  his  valets,  to  whom  the  Em- 
peror, in  his  suspecting  and  ever  mistrustful  way,  used  to 
lend  a  willing  ear.  "  From  Rodolph,"  says  Hormayr,  "  dates 
the  habit  of  the  later  Austrian  Emperors  of  showing  themselves 
mistrustful  and  taciturn  towards  their  ministers  and  the  higher 
aristocracy,  and  on  the  other  hand  familiar  to  their  clerks  and 
lacqueys" 

The  Habsburg  rulers  had,  as  it  were,  an  instinctive  per- 
ception of  the  necessity  of  keeping  the  proud  and  encroaching 
native  aristocracy  at  bay;  they  therefore  used  mean -born 
foreign  upstarts,  clerks,  and  servants  as  a  sort  of  barrier 
behind  which  the  monarch  might  breathe  more  freely.  Ad- 
venturers, recommended  and  pushed  on  by  his  Majesty's 
valets,  ruled  at  the  Hradschin  in  Prague,  and  carried  orders 
from  thence  to  Austria  and  Hungary.  Even  the  grooms 
had  an  important  standing  at  court,  the  stables  being  the 
Emperor's  favourite  haunt.  Great  influence  was  also  pos- 
sessed by  the  many  artful  courtesans,  with  whose  tribe 
Rodolph,  who  never  married,  continued  through  Hfe  to  carry 
on  an  ever  alternating  intercourse,  the  reign  of  his  ephemeral 
sultanas  frequently  lasting  even  less  than  a  week. 

The  cause  of  Rodolph  remaining  unmarried  was  a  horo- 
scope drawn  for  him  by  Tycho  de  Brahe.  Its  purport  was 
*'  that  he  ought  not  to  marry,  as  danger  was  threatening  him 
from  his  nearest  relation,  his  own  son."  It  had  been  the 
intention  of  his  father,  and  of  Philip  II.,  to  marry  him  to 
Donna  Isabella,  the  daughter  of  the  latter,  although  the 
princess  at  the  time  of  Rodolph  leaving  Spain  had  not  yet 
completed  her  sixth  year.  The  actual  negotiations  with 
reference  to  this  marriage  began,  according  to  Khevenhüller, 


2l6  RODOLPH     II. 

as  early  as  in  1579,  when  the  Infanta  was  not  more  than 
thirteen ;  but  she  reached  the  age  of  thirty-three  before  she 
was  brought  to  the  altar,  Rodolph  having  put  off  his  final 
decision  for  nearly  twenty  years.  Philip,  anxious  to  see  his 
favourite  daughter  married  before  he  was  gathered  to  his 
ancestors,  gave  the  Emperor  a  last  respite  of  six  months. 
Rodolph,  however,  came  to  no  decision.  The  Infanta  then 
married  his  younger  brother  Albert,  with  whom  she  went  to 
the  Netherlands,  the  regency  of  which  she  brought  to  her 
husband  as  her  dowry.  Her  father  did  not  live  to  see  her 
marriage;  he  died  in  1598,  after  having  been  nursed  by  her 
through  the  dreadful  malady  of  which  he  died.  Rodolph  was 
very  angry  at  this  marriage  of  his  brother ;  and  just  as  angry 
was  he  when,  in  the  following  year,  another  lady,  Mary  of 
Medici,  on  whom  he  had  likewise  cast  his  eyes,  was  to  his 
great  surprise  wedded  to  Henry  IV.  of  France. 

Besides  these  two  matrimonial  projects,  Rodolph,  who 
sent  for  the  portraits  of  the  most  beautiful  princesses  from  all 
the  different  courts,  had  entertained  in  succession  five  others : 
with  two  princesses  of  the  Styrian  branch  of  his  own  house, 
with  another  of  the  house  of  Lorrain,  and  even  with  a  Russian 
and  a  Wallachian  princess. 

In  1600,  after  the  failure  of  the  marriage  with  Donna 
Isabella  and  of  that  with  Mary  of  Medici,  Matthias,  Rodolph's 
brother,  entreated  the  Emperor,  if  he  himself  would  not  marry, 
to  secure  the  succession  lawfully  to  him,  as  the  eldest  of  the 
house  after  him.  According  to  the  authenticated  statement 
published  by  Hammer,  in  his  "  Life  of  Cardinal  Clesel," 
Barons  Rumpf  and  Trautson,  Rodolph's  chief  favourites, 
interceded  for  Matthias,  which  at  once  induced  their  ever 
suspicious  master  to  banish  both  of  them  from  his  presence 
to  their  estates.  Eight  years  after  Rodolph  was  forced  by 
Matthias  to  grant  what  he  had  refused  to  do  voluntarily. 

During  this  period,  from  1600  to  1608,  Rodolph's  gloomy 
moodiness  reached  its  highest  pitch.  Against  Matthias  he 
had  conceived  an  unconquerable  antipathy.  Halley's  comet, 
which  made  its  appearance  in  1607,  strengthened  his  fear  of 
murderous  designs  from  his  family,  which  the  awful  meteor 


HIS     PERSONAL    APPEARANCE  ZIJ 

seemed  to  him  quite  unmistakably  to  prognosticate.  In  vain 
the  learned  and  sensible  Kepler  tried  to  turn  him  from  these 
apprehensions.  His  mistrust  grew  to  such  a  height  that 
he  listened  to  all  the  slanderous  gossip  and  denunciations  of 
his  lowest  menials.  He  went  so  far  as  to  cause  all  those  who 
approached  him  to  be  searched  whether  they  had  any  arms 
concealed  about  their  persons.  Even  his  numerous  mistresses 
had  to  submit  to  this  regulation.  Fear  made  him  seclude 
himself  in  his  castle  at  Prague.  His  bedroom  was  like  a 
fortified  place.  He  would  often  jump  out  of  bed  and  order 
the  governor  of  the  palace  to  search,  in  the  middle  of  night, 
every  nook  and  corner  of  the  imperial  residence.  Precautions 
were  taken  everywhere  against  the  possibility  of  a  surprise. 
Whilst  attending  mass,  which  he  now  only  did  on  the 
highest  festivals,  he  sat  in  a  high,  covered  pew,  the  front 
of  which  was  very  closely  latticed.  For  greater  security 
during  his  promenades,  he  had  long  and  spacious  passages 
built  on  purpose,  with  narrow  sloping  apertures  like  loop- 
holes, through  which  he  need  not  fear  to  be  shot  at.  These 
passages  led  to  his  magnificent  stables,  where  he  liked  to 
be,  and  where,  consequently,  he  passed  much  of  his  time. 
There  he  used  to  meet  his  mistresses ;  and  there  he  kept 
his  special  pets,  a  number  of  the  most  splendid  horses ;  but 
only  for  the  pleasure  of  looking  at  them,  as  from  fear  for  his 
life  he  never  ventured  out  on  horseback. 

Daniel  I'Hermite  of  Antwerp,  who  was  attached  to  the 
Florentine  embassy  which  the  Duke  Cosmo  H,,  in  1609,  sent 
to  the  German  courts,  has  left  in  the  account  of  his  journey, 
which  he  published  in  German,  a  description  of  the  Em- 
peror's person  and  appearance.  Rodolph  was,  when  he  saw 
him,  in  his  fifty-eighth  year.  "The  Emperor,"  he  says,  "is 
advanced  in  years,  but  his  hair  and  beard  have  prematurely 
turned  grey.  He  is  of  rather  stately  presence;  his  brow 
majestic  ;  his  mouth  not  unpleasing ;  his  eyes  sparkling,  but 
nearly  covered  by  his  beetling  eyebrows.  He  is  of  middle 
size,  and  he  stoops  a  little,  which  is  a  peculiar  feature  of  the 
princes  of  the  house  of  Habsburg.  But  you  may  see  at  once 
that  the  Emperor  is  the  Emperor.     He  still  wears  his  clothes 


2l8  RODOLPH     II. 

after  the  old  fashion,  deeming  it  requisite  to  his  grandeur  not 
to  make  any  change  in  his  costume.  He  is  dressed  in  a  short 
cloak  trimmed  with  gold,  and  in  a  Spanish  doublet  over  his 
girded  trunk-hose.  As  we  entered  his  cabinet  he  was  standing 
in  the  background,  leaning  his  hand  on  a  table.  Thus  he 
received  the  embassy." 

The  people  of  Prague  did  not  often  know  for  months 
whether  Rodolph  was  living  or  dead ;  only  on  particularly 
joyful  occasions,  as  in  1603,  after  a  victory  over  the  Turks, 
he  showed  himself  to  his  faithful  lieges  from  the  window  of 
the  palace.  At  last  he  was  never  seen  by  anyone.  The 
people  suspected  that  his  favourites  were  concealing  his  death 
to  appropriate  his  treasure.  Then,  after  having  allowed 
himself  long  to  be  entreated,  and  as  at  the  same  time  a 
dangerous  riot  had  broken  out,  he  again  presented  himself  at 
the  window  to  pacify  the  assembled  populace.  He  would  sit 
for  hours  in  moody  silence,  looking  from  his  easy  chair  at  the 
clockmakers  and  painters  who  were  working  under  his  eyes  in 
his  apartments ;  sometimes  also  he  himself  worked  with  them. 
But  if  anyone  interrupted  him  during  his  meditations  or  his 
work,  his  Majesty,  flying  into  a  towering  rage,  assailed  the 
unlucky  intruder  with  a  volley  not  only  of  abuse,  but  also  of 
more  dangerous  missiles  in  the  shape  of  tools,  utensils,  or 
anything  that  came  first  to  hand.  Such  sudden  fits  of  flinging 
even  the  most  costly  things  about,  and  of  smashing  everything 
near  him,  would  also  happen  when  any  annoying  thought 
disturbed  the  monotonous  listlessness  of  his  pondering  melan- 
choly. In  fact  he  was  at  times  neither  more  nor  less  than  a 
madman.  As  long  as  these  fits  lasted  his  servants  and 
favourites  were  obliged  to  keep  out  of  his  way.  He  once 
even  pointed  his  sword  to  the  breast  of  his  lord  chamberlain. 
Now  and  then  he  had  visits  from  some  princes  of  the  Empire. 
Duke  Henry  JuHus  of  Brunswick  especially,  who,  as  presi- 
dent of  the  privy  council,  had  frequent  occasions  to  see  him, 
was  his  faithful  friend  and  boon  companion,  and  would  drink 
his  old  Hungarian  wine  with  him.  The  Elector  Christian  H. 
of  Saxony  also  applied  himself  with  such  zeal  to  the  same 
generous  beverage,  that,  on  taking  leave  of  the  Emperor  in 


SIR     ROBERT    SHIRLEY  2ig 

1610,  he  assured  his  royal  host  that  he  had  been  so  hospit- 
ably entertained  by  his  Majesty  in  Prague  as  scarcely  to 
to  have  been  sober  for  one  hour  during  the  whole  time. 

The  Emperor  repeatedly  received  ambassadors  from  the 
most  remote  countries.  In  1597  an  embassy  arrived  from 
the  Shah  of  Persia  to  urge  him  to  continue  the  Turkish 
v;^ar.  The  envoys  were  a  couple  of  Armenians,  father  and 
son,  from  Djulfar  on  the  Persian  Gulf.  Don  Giacomo,  the 
father,  had  been  in  Germany  fourteen  years  before.  Three 
other  times,  in  1601,  1604,  and  1610,  the  ruler  of  Persia — no 
other  than  the  great  Shah  Abbas — sent  ambassadors  to 
Rodolph.  In  1601  Sin  Ali  Bey  made  his  appearance,  accom- 
panied by  that  remarkable  Briton,  Anthony  Sharley,  who  had 
eaten  with  Abbas  from  the  same  dish  and  drunk  from  the 
same  cup.  He  and  his  brother,  Robert  Sharley,  who  came  to 
Prague  in  1610,  were  raised  by  Rodolph  to  the  rank  of  counts 
of  the  Empire,  Anthony  having  in  the  meanwhile  entered  the 
Spanish  service.  Robert  Sharley,^  as  Khevenhiiller  states, 
"  was  dressed  in  black  velvet,  and  wore  on  his  head  a  Persian 
turban  surmounted  by  a  golden  cross  studded  with  precious 
stones,  in  token  of  his  being  a  Christian  and  a  faithful  Roman 
Catholic.  He  visited  all  the  churches  in  Rome,  and  also  went 
from  Rome  to  Spain."  In  1595  and  1599  ambassadors  arrived 
from  the  Grand  Duke  of  Muscovy,  and  in  1600  a  Turkish 
embassy.  But  it  was  generally  very  difficult  for  persons  who 
had  any  business  at  court  to  get  at  the  Emperor.  Months 
might  sometimes  pass  without  their  finding  any  chance  of 
access  to  him.  He  was  either  shut  up  in  his  apartments  or  in 
his  laboratories,  or  in  his  observatory,  or  in  his  menagerie  ;  or 
in  the  gardens  of  the  Hradschin,  where  trees,  shrubs,  and 
flowers  from  all  parts  of  the  world  were  growing  round 
grottoes,  with  magic  mirrors  and  water-works,  from  which 
the  strains  of  sweet  music  were  pouring  forth. 

Whoever  wished  to  secure  an  interview  with  Rodolph — 
even  ambassadors  and  persons  of  exalted  rank — had  to  dis- 
guise themselves  as  grooms,  as  an  audience  could  only  be 
obtained  of  him  in  his  magnificent  stables.     But  even  here 

^  No  other  than  Sir  Robert  Shirley. — Translator 


220  RODOLPH     II. 

it  was  dangerous  to  approach  the  eccentric,  violent  sovereign. 
Eva,  the  daughter  of  George  Popel  of  Lobkowitz,  who,  in 
1594,  had  fallen  into  disgrace,  had,  by  means  of  a  bribe,  been 
admitted  to  that  singular  audience-hall,  to  entreat  for  the  life 
and  liberty  of  her  father,  when,  fortunately,  an  honest  groom 
kept  her  back,  telling  her  that  she  would  not  be  the  first  lady 
applying  to  his  Majesty  in  affairs  of  importance,  and  falling 
there  in  the  stable  a  victim  to  the  lust  of  the  royal  madman. 
The  ruin  of  Lobkowitz,  who  had  formerly  been  all  in  all  to 
Rodolph,  was  very  likely  brought  about  by  the  Jesuits,  against 
whom  he  used  very  strong  language  at  the  Diet  of  Ratisbon  in 
1594.  He  died  of  grief  in  1607,  after  a  captivity  of  thirteen 
years.  Rodolph  then  ordered  his  head  to  be  cut  off  after  his 
death,  and  from  that  time  all  the  great  lords  of  Bohemia 
turned  against  the  Emperor. 

Rodolph,  with  all  his  uncontrollable  passions,  was  a  strictly 
devout  son  of  the  Romish  Church,  joining  the  processions, 
even  in  the  midst  of  winter,  with  uncovered  head  and  with 
taper  in  hand. 

3. — Reformation  and  cotmfer-reformation  in  Austria. 

Whilst  Rodolph  was  idling  away  his  time  in  Prague,  the 
management  of  Austria  Proper  was  left  to  the  Jesuit  council- 
lors of  the  Emperor.  In  the  fierce  contest  which  thus  arose 
between  the  Papist  government  and  the  zealously  Protestant 
Estates  of  the  archduchy  the  balance  remained  long  undecided, 
until  at  last  the  Jesuits  carried  the  day  by  the  help  of  one  of 
their  greatest  pupils,  Ferdinand  of  Styria  (Grätz),  afterwards 
known  as  Emperor  Ferdinand  II. 

The  Reformation  had  found  its  way  into  Austria  soon 
after  Luther's  first  appearance.  Charles  V.  tried  to  put 
down  the  new  creed  with  fire  and  sword.  In  1524  the 
burgher  Caspar  Tauber,  of  Vienna,  became  the  first  martyr 
of  the  new  religious  movement.  In  1528  Balthazar  Hub- 
mayer,  formerly  a  professor  at  the  university  of  Ingolstadt, 
who  had  long  been  kept  a  prisoner  at  the  Kärthner  Thurm 
(the    Carinthian    Tower),   was    burnt    near    Erdberg,    over 


THE     REFORMATION     IN    AUSTRIA  221 

against  the  Lower  Prater,  on  the  same  spot  where  Richard 
Coeur  de  Lion  was  captured.  But  the  new  tenets  soon 
gained  ground  and  kept  it.  As  early  as  in  1541,  the  Protes- 
tants in  Austria  felt  themselves  so  strong  already  as  to 
petition  Ferdinand  L,  at  that  time  in  Prague,  to  grant  them 
equal  rights  with  the  Papists  in  the  exercise  of  their  religion, 
— the  inhabitants  of  Vienna  being  among  the  petitioners. 
Great  numbers  of  young  Austrian  nobles  went  to  study  at 
Protestant  universities,  and  several  of  them  filled  the 
honorary  post  of  rector  at  Wittenberg  and  at  Prague.  After 
the  peace  of  Passau,  in  1552,  the  Reformation  spread  even 
more  widely.  In  Austria,  as  elsewhere  in  Germany,  the 
nobility  were  principally  tempted  by  the  spoil  of  the  eccle- 
siastical estates.  The  heads  of  the  movement  were  the 
Jörgers  of  Herrnals,  especially  the  great  champion  of 
Protestantism  Helmhard  Jörger,  president  of  the  chamber 
of  representatives  of  Lower  Austria.  With  these  Jörgers 
Luther  exchanged  a  great  many  letters  since  1525,  when 
he  sent  them  a  preacher.  Besides  them,  the  Hagers  of 
Alensteig,  the  Thonradls  of  Thernberg  and  Ebergassing, 
the  Buchheims  of  Aspang,  the  Hoffmanns  of  Strechau,  and 
many  others,  were  zealous  Protestants.  Within  the  terri- 
tories of  these  lords  the  monks  and  nuns  were  frequently 
expelled  from  their  houses,  the  monasteries  and  churches 
ransacked  and  demolished,  the  statues  and  pictures  of  saints 
profaned,  and  the  Roman  Catholic  livings  left  vacant  for 
years,  whilst  the  Protestant  patrons  appropriated  the  revenues. 
The  movement  spread  from  the  nobility  to  the  burghers  and 
the  peasantry.  The  abolition  of  the  tithes  was  a  bait  for 
the  people,  as  the  clerical  estates  were  for  the  nobility. 
Among  these  ranks  of  society  also  examples  of  a  fanatical 
spirit  of  persecution  were  not  wanting.  The  burghers  made 
laws  among  themselves  not  to  admit  any  Roman  Catholic 
into  the  council,  nor  even  to  engage  a  Papist  servant.  The 
processions  of  Corpus  Christi  had  to  be  discontinued,  in  order 
to  prevent  fights  among  the  two  religious  parties  in  the 
streets.  No  priest  dared  read  mass  on  week  days,  nor  carry 
the  sacrament  to  the  dying  without  an  escort.     In  1549  a 


222  RODOLPH     II. 

Lutheran  baker's  boy  in  Vienna  pushed  into  a  procession, 
snatched  the  host  from  the  hand  of  the  priest,  and  flung  it 
on  the  ground  with  imprecations  against  idolatrous  abomina- 
tion. He  was  burnt  by  a  slow  fire,  after  having  his  tongue 
and  his  hand  cut  off.  Yet  the  only  effect  of  these  cruel 
punishments  was  to  call  forth  so  much  the  fiercer  exaspera- 
tion on  the  part  of  the  followers  of  the  new  creed.  All 
comedies,  masquerades,  and  sledge-processions  were  full  of 
abuse  and  ridicule  of  the  Papists.  In  1561  matters  had 
gone  so  far  that  all  these  public  popular  amusements  had  to 
be  prohibited.  Ladies  of  Protestantised  families  were  so 
conversant  with  gospel  lore  as  to  do  duty  as  missionaries 
among  the  Catholics.  Where  gentle  persuasion  was  of  no 
avail,  the  Protestants  had  recourse  to  violence  for  the  purpose 
of  making  converts.  The  followers  of  the  old  creed  were  not 
unfrequently  pounced  upon  in  the  dead  of  night.  It  even 
happened,  on  the  instigation  of  a  pastor,  Strohmeyer,  that 
Nicholas  Baron  von  Buchheim  was  treacherously  murdered  in 
the  night  at  his  own  castle  by  the  noble  lord  of  Hofkirchen 
and  Schönkirchen,  who,  under  the  pretext  of  a  friendly  visit, 
became  his  assassin.  In  fact,  nothing  could  exceed  the 
fanaticism  and  the  bloodthirsty  bigotry  with  which  the 
Protestant  preachers  denounced  their  opponents  from  the 
pulpits.  Their  flocks  only  too  readily  took  the  cue  from 
them ;  and  the  Lutherans  were  heard  publicly  to  declare 
that  they  "  would  rather  live  in  peace  with  the  Turks  than 
with  the  Roman  Catholics."  The  introduction  of  the 
improved  calendar,  the  necessity  of  which  had  so  long  made 
itself  felt,  was  obstinately  opposed  in  Vienna  by  the  Pro- 
testants as  the  first  letter  in  the  Pope's  alphabet,  by  which 
he  only  wanted  to  throw  the  noose  over  their  horns,  so  that 
they  might  no  longer  be  able  to  ward  off  his  tyranny  in  the 
church  of  God.  The  prelates,  provosts,  abbots,  and  monks 
married  and  had  families,  after  having  divided  the  property  of 
their  chapters  and  conventual  estates  between  them,  which 
they  sold,  bartered,  and  mortgaged  at  their  own  pleasure,  a 
proceeding  for  which  they  were  publicly  commended  by  the 
preachers  from  their  pulpits. 


PROTESTANT     EXCESSES  223 

The  policy  of  Ferdinand  I.  with  regard  to  the  encroach- 
ments of  the  Protestants  had  been  very  forbearing,  owing  to 
the  necessity  of  the  times.  Far  from  turning  all  the  severity 
of  the  law  against  the  new  doctrine,  he  contented  himself  with 
keeping  down  the  wild  convulsions  of  fanatical  party  spirit 
until  an  imperial  Diet  or  general  council  should  have  decided 
on  the  dispute.  He  merely  issued  a  strict  general  edict  that 
no  one  should  dare  to  enter  on  any  bargain  with  clerical 
personages  concerning  the  alienation  or  mortgage  of  church 
property.  During  the  first  years  of  his  reign  he  tried  to 
induce  the  headstrong  Pope  Paul  IV.  to  give  his  express 
sanction  to  the  administration  of  the  sacrament  in  both  kinds, 
which  the  Pontiff  until  then  had  only  connived  at,  and  also 
to  the  marriage  of  the  priests.  The  Emperor,  moreover,  pro- 
tested against  several  disciplinary  decisions  of  the  Council 
of  Trent;  but  that  assembly,  in  its  final  session  of  1563, 
pronounced  for  an  entire  and  irrevocable  rupture  with  the 
Protestant  heretics. 

The  decrees  of  Trent,  however,  did  not  prevent  Maxi- 
milian, the  son  and  successor  of  Ferdinand  I.,  from  showing 
even  greater  toleration  than  his  father  had  done.  The  Pro- 
testants already  ventured  publicly  and  freely  to  call  him 
"  a  pillar  of  their  doctrine."  The  Emperor,  indeed,  was 
enlightened  enough  to  see  in  this  religious  antagonism  the 
great  evil  of  the  age,  for  which  he  knew  no  other  remedy 
but  the  open  sufferance  of  the  Protestants.  He  proclaimed 
accordingly  in  1567  and  1568  free  exercise  of  religion  in 
Bohemia  and  Austria.  The  Protestant  country  gentlemen 
and  noblemen  in  Austria  were  allowed  perfect  religious  liberty 
at  their  chateaux  and  on  their  lands ;  they  were,  moreover, 
allowed  to  take  their  preachers  to  Vienna,  and  to  admit  any- 
one who  wished  to  hear  them  to  their  places  of  worship.  In 
1574  the  Protestants  of  Vienna  were  permitted  to  have  regular 
religious  service  at  the  Landhaus  (the  locality  of  the  chamber 
of  representatives),  and  afterwards  also  at  the  church  of  the 
Minorites. 

It  was  the  favourite  plan  of  Maximilian  IL,  at  the  head  of 
a  Christian  army  of  Crusaders,  and  in  alliance  with  Muscovy 


224 


RUDOLPH     II. 


and  Persia,  to  reconquer  the  countries  taken  from  Hungary 
and  to  drive  the  Turks  back  to  Asia.  To  pave  the  way  for 
this  vast  plan  he  tried  to  gain  the  affection  of  the  Protestant 
estates  of  Austria,  and  the  assistance  of  the  Protestant  princes 
of  the  Empire.  But  in  the  last  years  of  his  life  he  found 
himself  compelled  to  tighten  the  reins  again,  and  to  take 
repressive  measures.  The  Reformation  gained  more  and 
more  ground,  extending  even  to  Bavaria.  Here  also  great 
numbers  of  the  people,  and  more  especially  of  the  nobles, 
embraced  the  new  faith. 

Under   Rodolph,   who   never  left   Prague,  the   Austrian 
Protestants  proceeded  to  open  hostilities.     The  burghers  of 
Vienna,  joined  by  those  of  the  country  nobles  who  happened 
to  be  present  in  the  capital,  made  an  attempt  to  extort,  by 
revolutionary  means,  perfect  equality  for  the  followers  of  the 
Reformed  religion  with  the  Roman  Catholics.     Upwards  of 
5,000   men    appeared   in   arms   at    the  imperial   castle   (the 
Hofburg)  where  Archduke  Ernest,  the  Emperor's  brother, 
resided.      He   promised   to   report   about   their   case   to   his 
Majesty.    Tranquillity  was  thus  restored  for  the  present,  and 
after  the  lapse  of  about  a  year  the  ringleaders  were  brought  to 
justice  and  condemned  to  death.    Rodolph,  however,  mitigated 
the  punishment  to  perpetual  exile.     In  1578  a  Protestant  of 
the  name  of  John  Schwartzenthaler  was  elected  rector  of  the 
university  of  Vienna,  in  direct  breach  of  the  laws  and  of  the 
oath  prescribed  by  the  statutes.     This  election  was  quashed 
by  the  Emperor ;  but  the  nobles  now  began,  contrary  to  their 
pledge,  to  force  the  inhabitants  of  towns  and  boroughs,  as  well 
as  their  own  vassals,  to  embrace  the  Protestant  religion ;  in 
fact,  nothing  was  left  undone  to  wrest  every  day  new  conces- 
sions from  the  court.     Whilst  thus  the  prospects  of  the  Pro- 
testants grew  more  and  more  promising,  their  cause  received 
the  first  shock  by  the  discords  of  their  own  preachers,  who 
split  on  the  Flacian  controversy  about  original  sin  and  grace. 
Dr.  Opitz,  the  preacher  at  the  Laudhaus  chapel  at  Vienna, 
gave  himself  up  to  the  most  outrageous  Flacianism,  for  which 
the   Emperor   had   him   expelled    not   only   from    the  town, 
but  also  from  the  Austrian  dominions.     In  vain  Dr.  Lucas 


THE    COUNTER-REFORMATION     BEGUN  225 

Backmayster — sent,  at  the  request  of  the  Austrian  represen- 
tatives, by  the  celebrated  Dean  (superintendent)  of  Rostock, 
David  Chyträus,  to  hold  a  visitation  of  the  Protestant 
Church  of  Austria — exerted  himself  to  restore  order  among 
the  preachers.  After  having  wasted  his  labour  on  them  for 
nine  months,  he  returned  to  Rostock,  stoutly  refusing  to 
accept  the  post  of  "Superintendent"  of  the  Austrian  Pro- 
testant Church. 

The  last  occasion  for  repelling  violence  by  violence  was  at 
a  riot  of  the  peasants  in  the  cantons  above  and  below  the  con- 
fluence of  the  Ems,  in  1595  and  1596.  They  had  marched, 
1,200  or  1,500  men  strong,  to  the  abbey  of  Lilienfeld,  and  had 
laid  siege  to  St.  Polten.  Heavy  taxes,  forced  levies  for  the 
Turkish  war,  and  persecution  of  the  Protestant  faith  had 
exasperated  them.  Gotthard  Starhemberg  crushed  them. 
On  the  plain  of  Steinfeld,  near  Wilhelmsburg,  they  were  com- 
pletely defeated  by  the  imperial  troops,  and  their  ringleaders 
broken  on  the  wheel  and  decapitated  at  Vienna. 

As  soon  as  the  Jesuits  became  aware  of  the  dissension  in 
the  Protestant  camp  they  began  in  Austria  the  counter-refor- 
mation. The  man  who  restored  Popery  in  Austria,  and  very 
nearly  made  it  triumph  again  throughout  Germany,  was  Fer- 
dinand of  Grätz.  His  father,  Archduke  Charles,  who  died  in 
1590,  had,  ten  years  after  Maximilian's  having  granted  religious 
liberty  to  Austria,  followed  his  example  in  his  countries  of 
Styria,  Carniola,  and  Carinthia.  When  Charles  afterwards 
attempted  to  introduce  only  two  Roman  Catholics  into  the 
town  council  of  Grätz,  he  had  the  mortification  to  see  his 
commissaries  expelled  and  ill-treated.  The  Bishop  of  Gurk 
and  the  papal  nuncio  having  been  grossly  insulted  in  a  riot, 
Charles  came  in  all  haste  from  the  watering-place  of  Manners- 
dorf,  where  he  was  staying  for  his  health.  The  vexation  at 
these  annoying  occurrences  became  the  cause  of  his  death. 
Whe7i  Ferdinand,  in  1596,  celebrated  Easter  in  his  capital  of  Grätz 
he  was  almost  the  only  one  who  took  the  sacrament  according  to  the 
Romish  rite,  there  being  not  more  than  three  Papists  besides  him  in  the 
town.  In  the  whole  of  the  archduchy  of  Austria  there  were,  of  all 
the  noble  houses,  only  five,  in  Carinthia  seven,  and  in  Styria  not  more 
VOL.  I  15 


226  RUDOLPH     II. 

than  one,^  that  had  remained  Papists.  All  the  patronage,  govern- 
ment of  the  provinces,  administration  of  the  revenue,  besides 
the  arsenals  and  the  command  of  the  mercenaries,  were  in  the 
hands  of  Protestants.  But  Ferdinand  said,  "  I  too  will  be 
master  in  my  country  as  the  Electors  of  Saxony  and  the 
Palatinate  are  in  theirs." 

Ferdinand  had  been  brought  up  at  Ingolstadt  by  the 
Jesuits,  together  with  his  friend  the  Elector  Maximilian  of 
Bavaria,  whose  father,  Duke  William  V.,  called  by  the  Jesuits 
"  the  pious  duke,"  was  his  uncle  by  the  mother's  side  and 
afterwards  his  guardian.  About  the  end  of  the  year  1597 
Ferdinand  set  out  on  a  pilgrimage  to  Loretto,  and  afterwards 
to  Rome.  Here  he  took,  at  the  feet  of  Pope  Clement  VIII. , 
the  vow  to  restore,  even  at  the  peril  of  his  own  life,  the 
Roman  Catholic  religion.  The  reverend  fathers  of  the  Society 
of  Jesus  became  his  main  supporters.  At  the  age  of  not 
more  than  twenty  he  began  under  their  guidance  the  great 
work  of  the  counter-reformation. 

First  of  all  he  issued,  in  September,  1598,  a  decree  in 
virtue  of  which  all  the  Lutheran  preachers  were  to  leave  his 
countries  of  Styria,  Carniola,  and  Carinthia.  In  1599  the 
Protestant  church  in  his  capital,  Grätz,  the  centre  of  Pro- 
testantism in  his  territories,  was  closed,  and  all  Protestant 
worship  prohibited  under  punishment  of  imprisonment  and 
death.  The  Estates  remonstrated  against  it ;  reminded  him 
of  the  privileges  which  his  father  had  granted,  and  which  he 
himself  on  his  accession  had  sworn  to  respect.  They,  moreover, 
refused  to  him  their  aid  against  the  Turks,  and  Ehrenreich 
von  Saurau,  under-land  marshal  (lord-lieutenant)  of  Styria, 
said  to  him  one  day,  that  he  should  take  care  lest  he  "  might 
fare  as  the  King  of  Spain  had  done  in  the  Netherlands." 
But  Ferdinand  remained  immovable  as  a  rock.  He  sent 
the  commissaries  charged  with  the  counter-reformation,  with 
a  host  of  German  soldiers,  about  the  country  ;  it  was  the 
prototype  of  the  Dragonnade  of  Louis  XIV.  in  France.  The 
country  people  at  their  approach  cried  out  in  terror,  "  The 
reform   is   coming."     Everywhere   the    Protestant   churches 

*  The  Herberstorfs,  whose  house  became  extinct  in  1629. 


THE     GROWTH    OF    THE    COUNTER-REFORMATION  227 

were  burnt  down,  blasted  with  powder,  or  otherwise  de- 
molished, and  a  gibbet  and  gallows  erected  on  the  spot  where 
they  had  stood.  The  preachers  were  either  exiled  or  im- 
prisoned, and  thousands  of  Bibles  and  prayer-books  burnt  by  the 
hands  of  the  hangman.  The  inhabitants  who  refused  to  return 
to  the  Romish  faith  were  forced  to  emigrate,  being  at  the 
same  time  mulcted  of  one-tenth  of  their  property.  One  of 
those  who  at  that  time  had  to  fly  from  Grätz  was  the  cele- 
brated astronomer  Kepler,  who  had  been  appointed  there 
by  the  Estates  as  professor,  and  who  now  went  to  Prague 
to  the  Emperor  Rodolph.  Ferdinand,  with  thorough-paced 
Papist  zealotry,  had  even  the  churchyards  of  the  Protestants 
dug  up ;  an  outrage  which  he  afterwards  repeated  in  Bohemia, 
where  he  disturbed  the  graves  of  the  Hussites.  For  five 
years  the  commission  of  the  counter-reformation  thus  raged 
in  the  country,  where  the  inhabitants  were  as  if  completely 
stupefied.  The  country  nobles  of  the  three  provinces  under 
the  sway  of  Ferdinand  fled  to  Bohemia,  and  it  was  especially 
owing  to  these  aristocratic  refugees  that  the  flame  of  re- 
bellion afterwards  blazed  so  fiercely  in  the  kingdom.  The 
Counts  Thurn,  the  Tschernembls,  Thonradls,  Jörgers,  Hagers, 
Hoffmanns,  Auerspergs,  Wurmbrands,  Tiefenbachs,  PoU- 
heims,  Wollzogens,  and  others,  were  none  of  them  native 
Bohemians. 

Ferdinand's  example  was  followed  in  due  time  by  Rodolph's 
councillors  at  Vienna.  They  were  headed  by  the  Cardinal 
Francis  Dietrichstein,  bishop  of  Olmütz,  and  by  the  Bishop 
of  Vienna,  Melchior  Clesel. 

Francis  Dietrichstein  was  born  in  1570  at  Madrid.  His 
father  Adam  was  lord  chamberlain  to  the  Emperor  Rodolph. 
Francis  had  in  Rome  by  public  controversies  attracted  the 
attention  of  the  Holy  Father  and  of  the  Sacred  College.  He 
became  chamberlain  to  the  Pope,  canon  of  Olmütz  and 
Breslau,  and,  at  the  age  of  twenty-eight,  a  cardinal  and 
bishop  of  Olmütz.  Diplomatic  business  led  him  to  Naples, 
to  Madrid,  and  to  Brussels.  After  the  fall  of  the  Hungarian 
border  fortress  of  Kanischa,  in  1600,  he  obtained  for  the 
Emperor  the  aid  of  all  the  Italian  courts,  whereupon  Rodolph, 

15—2 


228  RODOLPH    II. 

in  acknowledgment  of  his  services,  appointed  him  governor 
of  the  archduchy  of  Austria,  and  afterwards  president  of  the 
privy  council. 

Clesel,  born  in  1553,  was,  like  Cardinal  Wolsey,  of  very 
humble  extraction,  the  son  of  a  Lutheran  baker  at  Vienna. 
Having  been  converted  in  early  youth  by  the  Jesuit  Father 
Scherer,  he  in  his  turn  converted  his  own  parents.  He  re- 
ceived his  education  at  Ingolstadt,  then  the  headquarters  of 
the  order ;  after  which  he  quickly  made  his  way,  being  first 
nominated  provost  of  the  chapter  of  St.  Stephen.  Then,  in 
rapid  succession,  chancellor  of  the  university  of  Vienna, 
preacher  to  the  court,  and  imperial  councillor.  In  1558, 
at  the  early  age  of  thirty-five,  he  obtained  the  see  of 
Neustadt ;  ten  years  later,  that  of  Vienna. 

Dietrichstein  and  Clesel  sent  round  commissaries  of  the 
counter-reformation  in  the  archduchy  of  Austria  also ;  and 
here,  too,  the  old  Protestant  preachers  and  schoolmasters 
had  to  leave  the  country.  The  Austrian  Estates,  on  their 
side,  leagued  themselves  against  this  reactionary  aggression  ; 
and  when  Matthias,  in  1608,  was  appointed  Regent  of 
Austria,  they  concluded  an  offensive  and  defensive  alliance 
at  the  celebrated  congress  of  Horn.  They  also  joined  the 
Evangelical  Union  entered  into  the  same  year  by  the  princes 
of  the  Empire  at  Ahausen. 

4. — State  of  Hungary — The  Bohemian  "Royal  Letter" — Rupture 
with  Matthias — Deposition  of  Rodolph — Latter  days  and  death 
of  Rodolph  n. 

In  the  midst  of  these  stirring  times,  the  Emperor  Rodolph 
was  forced  to  abdicate,  or  rather  was  deposed.  The  approxi- 
mate cause  of  this  event  was  the  danger  of  a  Turkish  in- 
vasion and  the  insurrection  of  Stephen  Botskay,  the  Prince 
of  Transylvania,  against  Austria.  Rodolph,  who  since  his 
election  as  Emperor  had  never  been  to  Hungary,  contented 
himself  with  keeping  garrisons  of  German  mercenaries  in  the 
fortresses  of  that  country.    These  troops  were  commanded  by 


TURKS    RECOMMENCE    WAR  229 

the  generals  George  Basta  and  Count  John  Jacob  Belgiojoso.^ 
These  two  men,  as  governors  and  chief  commanders,  treated 
the  unfortunate  Hungarians  worse  even  than  the  Turks  did. 
Rodolph  never  checked  them.  Very  rarely  some  imperial 
orders  would  arrive  from  Prague.  The  troops,  being  left 
without  pay,  indemnified  themselves  by  plunder,  arson,  and 
murder.  Ever  since  that  time  fierce  mastiffs  are  called  in 
Hungary  Bastas.  The  Jesuits  tried  to  crush  the  Protestants 
in  Hungary  also  ;  the  churches  of  Kaschau  and  Clausenburg 
in  Transylvania  were  taken  from  them  by  force.  In  1593 
the  Turks  recommenced  the  war  which  had  been  in  abeyance 
since  the  death  of  Soleyman  in  1566.  Just  before  this  cam- 
paign, the  famous  Aulic  Council  of  War  (Hofkriegsrath)  was 
instituted,  which  has  since  so  often  proved  the  bane  of  the 
Austrian  arms.  It  did  not  then  do  much  harm  to  the  Turks, 
who,  in  1594,  took  the  important  fortress  of  Raab,  which  for- 
tunately was  reconquered  by  surprise  in  1598,  by  Adolph 
Schwarzenberg^  and  Nicolas  Pallfy.  The  cruelty  of  Basta 
and  Belgiojoso  caused  the  Transylvanians  to  throw  them- 
selves into  the  arms  of  the  Turks.  In  1605  Stephen  Botskay, 
who  the  year  before  had,  with  the  consent  of  the  Porte,  been 
elected  by  the  Transylvanians  for  their  prince,  rose  against 
the  power  which  was  wielded  under  the  name  of  Rodolph. 
Basta  was  driven  back  to  Pressburg,  and  the  Heyducks 
(Rascians)  revolted  and  extended  their  forays  to  the  very 
gates  of  Vienna.  Yet  Rodolph  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  every 
proposal  of  peace. 

In  this  perilous  conjuncture,  at  last  all  the  archdukes 
agreed,  at  Vienna,  upon  the  celebrated  act  of  the  25th  of 
April,  1606,  in  virtue  of  which  Rodolph  was  forced  to  resign 
the   government  of  Austria  Proper  and  of  Hungary.     The 

1  Basta  had  risen  from  a  drummer-boy  to  the  rank  of  general-in-chief. 
His  family  came  from  Naples,  whither  it  had  immigrated  from  Epirus  in 
Greece.  Rodolph  raised  him,  in  1605,  to  the  rank  of  a  count  of  the  Empire. 
He  died  in  Vienna  in  1607,  leaving  one  son  ;  but  the  family  now  seems  to 
be  extinct.  Belgiojoso  was  a  scion  of  the  Milanese  house  of  Barbiano, 
He  died  in  1626  on  his  estates  near  Liege. 

2  It  was  on  this  occasion  that  the  Schwarzenberg  coat-of-arms  was 
charged  with  a  raven,  the  German  word  for  which  is  Rabe,  or  Rab. 


230  RODOLPH     II. 

resignation  was  to  be  effected  in  favour  of  his  much-hated 
brother  Matthias,  "  as  the  senior  of  the  house."  The  reason 
put  forward  in  this  act  was  that  unfortunately  it  was  too 
plain  that  his  Roman  Imperial  Majesty,  their  (the  archdukes') 
brother  and  cousin,  owing  to  his  dangerous  fits  of  derange- 
ment, was  neither  equal  to,  nor  fit  for  the  conduct  of  the 
government  of  his  countries. 

The  chief  mover  of  this  famous  '*  Vienna  Family  Treaty" 
was  Clesel,  bishop  of  Vienna  and  Neustadt,  who,  however, 
acted  with  the  perfect  consent  of  the  archdukes.  Rodolph, 
being  apprised  of  it,  wanted  to  have  him  arrested  at  Prague  ; 
on  which  Clesel,  to  escape  from  the  imperial  anger,  had  to 
conceal  himself,  and  to  fly  in  disguise  from  Prague  to  Vienna. 
Yet  even  there  Rodolph  sought  after  his  life.  He  had,  as 
Khevenhüller  states,  an  almost  miraculous  escape.  One  day, 
as  he  was  going  from  Baden  near  Vienna  to  Neustadt,  where 
some  gentlemen  had  invited  him  to  breakfast,  the  six  horses 
of  his  coach  growing  restive  just  before  the  gate  of  Neustadt, 
he  allowed  the  carriage  to  drive  through  the  gate  empty,  and 
followed  on  foot ;  yet  the  vehicle  had  scarcely  passed  the  gate 
when  it  was  attacked  by  armed  men.  "  On  this,"  Kheven- 
hüller adds,  "  Clesel  became  more  active  than  ever  in  under- 
mining the  Emperor  Rodolph." 

As  soon  as  the  "Family  Treaty  of  Vienna"  was  con- 
cluded, peace  was  made — likewise  at  Vienna — with  the 
Hungarians  on  the  23rd  of  June,  1606,  in  which  for  the  first 
time  they  succeeded  in  enforcing  the  concession  of  religious 
liberty  to  the  Protestants. 

Botskay,  having  no  direct  heirs,  was  confirmed  in  the 
possession  of  Transylvania  and  of  Hungary ;  but  he  died 
a  few  months  after.  With  the  Turks  a  truce  for  twenty 
years  was  concluded  at  Comorn,  on  the  9th  of  November  of 
the  same  year.  Matthias  at  first  obtained  only  the  regency 
of  Austria,  as  Rodolph  delayed  giving  up  Hungary.  To 
force  the  latter  kingdom  from  him,  Matthias  two  years  after 
inarched  with  a  host  of  20,000  Heyducks  to  Moravia  and 
before  Prague.  The  helpless  Rodolph  had  already  formed  a 
plan  to  escape  to  Dresden,  but  the  Elector  of  Saxony  had 


RODOLPH     YIELDS     THE     CROWN     OF     HUNGARY  23I 

declined  to  receive  him.  Matthias  intended  to  keep  the 
Emperor  quiet  in  a  castle  in  the  Tyrol ;  yet  the  Bohemians 
for  the  nonce  protected  Rodolph  with  their  own  army. 

On  the  17th  of  June,  1608,  however,  Rodolph  was  obliged 
entirely  to  yield  the  crown  of  Hungary  and  the  countries  of 
Austria  and  Moravia  for  a  yearly  pension ;  and  on  the  19th 
of  November,  1608 — Cardinal  Dietrichstein  having  brought 
out  from  Prague  into  the  camp  of  Matthias  the  Hungarian 
crown  jewels,  which  until  then  had  been  in  the  keeping  of 
Rodolph — Matthias  was  solemnly  crowned  under  the  canopy 
of  heaven  at  Pressburg.  The  new  king  had  to  sign  very 
hard  conditions.  Two  Protestants,  one  after  the  other,  re- 
ceived the  dignity  of  Palatine  of  Hungary;  in  1608  Stephen 
Illishascy,  and  in  1609  the  great  George  Thurzo  of  Arva, 
lord  of  Bethlen-Falva,  who  died  in  1616.  The  Estates  of 
Austria  leagued  in  the  Union  of  Horn  likewise  refused  to 
do  homage  until  absolute  reHgious  liberty  and  equality  should 
be  granted.  Matthias  was  forced  to  ensure  it  to  them  on 
the  19th  of  March,  1609.  In  virtue  of  this  decree,  which  is 
called  the  "  Capitulation  Resolution,"  the  right  of  a  free 
exercise  of  religion  was  extended  to  the  burghers  and  to  the 
common  people  also.  Immediately  after  Rodolph  was  com- 
pelled to  grant  to  the  Estates  of  Bohemia — who  supported 
their  by  no  means  humble  request  by  3,000  men  under  the 
command  of  Count  Henry  Matthias  von  Thurn — the  cele- 
brated Royal  Letter,  called  '*  Majestäts-brief,"  of  the  nth 
of  July  and  20th  of  August,  which  secured  to  them  absolute 
religious  liberty  and  opened  to  the  Protestants  the  university 
and  the  consistory  of  Prague,  besides  the  schools  and  churches 
which  they  aleady  possessed. 

Rodolph  was  in  a  position  similar  to  that  of  Charles  V. 
when  the  German  Protestants  forced  from  him  the  Peace  ot 
Religion  at  Passau.  As  Charles  was  forced  into  this  peace 
by  his  secret  dissension  with  his  brother  Ferdinand,  so  Rodolph 
was  forced  by  his  public  dissension  with  Matthias,  and  by  it 
alone,  into  granting  the  Majestäts-brief — the  "  rag  of  waste 
paper,"  as  the  Emperor  Ferdinand  II.  called  it  when  he  burnt 
it  after  the  battle  of  the  White  Mountain. 


232  RODOLPH     II. 

Rodolph  granted  the  Majestäts-brief  with  the  utmost 
reluctance ;  the  papal  nuncio  threatened  him  with  excom- 
munication. But  even  the  Spanish  family  ambassador,  Don 
Balthazar  de  Zuniga,  advised  the  Emperor  to  yield  for  the 
present,  in  order  not  to  jeopardise  everything. 

Zdenko  Adalbert,  Popel  Lobkowitz,  lord  chancellor  of 
Bohemia  (afterwards  the  first  prince  of  this  family),  could  not 
be  induced  by  any  consideration  to  countersign  this  "  waste 
paper."  He  declared  that  he  would  rather  die  than  do 
anything  contrary  to  his  conscience.  By  command  of  the 
Emperor,  the  chief  burgrave,  Adam  von  Sternberg,  signed  in 
his  stead. 

One  thing  Rodolph  thought  to  have  secured  to  himself  by 
granting  the  Royal  Letter — that  he  would  be  allowed  to  die 
unmolested  as  King  of  Bohemia  in  his  dearly  beloved  Prague. 
His  ultimate  view  with  regard  to  the  succession  was  to  obtain 
for  the  younger  brother  of  Ferdinand  of  Grätz,  Archduke 
Leopold,^  bishop  of  Passau,  not  only  the  Bohemian  crown, 
but  also  the  imperial  dignity. 

Leopold  being  appointed  by  Rodolph  as  sequestrator  of 
the  countries  of  Juliers,  which  had  fallen  vacant  in  1609,  he 
enlisted  for  the  occupation  of  that  territory  16,000  men,  who 
were  called  "Passau  folk";  yet,  instead  of  marching  with 
these  troops  to  the  Rhine,  he  led  them  to  Bohemia,  and 
occupied  with  them  the  "Small  Side"  of  Prague  on  Shrove 
Tuesday,  161 1.  At  once  the  Bohemian  Estates  made  an 
outcry  against  it.  They  believed,  or  pretended  to  believe» 
that  these  troops  were  intended  to  be  employed  for  the 
purpose  of  repealing  the  concessions  of  the  Majestäts-brief, 
of  crushing  the  Protestant  religion,  and  perhaps  even  o£ 
changing  the  old  aristocratic  constitution  of  the  country 
into  an  absolute  monarchy,  after  the  pattern  of  that  of  Spain. 
Thus  the  helpless  Rodolph  was  obliged  to  pay  off  the  "  Passau 
folk,"  and  to  send  them  out  of  the  country.     It  caused  some 

1  Leopold  was  for  this  purpose  to  get  a  dispensation  from  his  clerical 
orders,  which  he  afterwards  (in  1626)  actually  did.  He  is  the  founder  of  the 
last  side-branch  of  the  Austrian  house  of  Habsburg,  the  Tyrolese  line, 
which  became  extinct  in  1CC5.     He  was,  in  161 1,  in  his  twenty-sixth  year. 


"  UNGRATEFUL    PRAGUE  233 

surprise  that  the  Emperor,  who  until  then  had  always  com- 
plained of  the  extreme  exhaustion  of  his  finances,  should 
find  in  his  coffers  the  300,000  florins  which  were  required 
for  this  purpose. 

After  the  departure  of  the  "  Passau  folk "  the  Estates 
occupied  the  Hradschin.  Making  a  show  of  assiduously 
paying  their  court  to  the  Emperor,  they  guarded  him  so 
closely  that  he  was  not  even  allowed  to  take  a  breath  of  air  in 
the  grottoes  of  his  fairy  garden.  In  those  times,  when  the 
proud  Bohemian  aristocracy  had  reached  the  summit  of  its 
power,  from  which  it  was  so  soon  after  to  be  hurled  down  into 
irretrievable  ruin,  it  happened  one  day  that  as  Rodolph  was 
proceeding  by  a  secret  postern  into  the  garden  of  the  Hradschin, 
the  sentry  levelled  his  gun  at  him,  and  the  Roman  Emperor, 
without  having  had  his  walk,  was  forced  to  return  to  his  apart- 
ments. Here  he  gave  vent  to  his  anger  in  a  curse,  which, 
opening  the  window,  he  pronounced  on  Prague :  "  O  thou 
ungrateful  Prague.  By  me  thou  hast  been  exalted,  and  now 
thou  castest  thy  benefactor  from  thee.  May  the  revenge  of 
God  fall  upon  thee,  and  his  curse  blight  thee  and  the  whole 
Bohemian  country  I" 

The  Electors  of  Mayence  and  Saxony  having  tried  to 
intercede  for  the  Emperor,  who,  they  said,  "  was  likewise 
their  colleague  in  the  Assembly  of  Electors,"  the  Estates  of 
Bohemia  sneeringly  answered  to  the  Saxon  and  Mayence 
envoys  that,  if  the  Electors  wished  it,  they  would  send  to 
them  the  Roman  Emperor  and  the  Elector  of  Bohemia 
together  in  one  sack. 

In  this  emergency  Matthias  forced  from  his  brother  the 
Bohemian  crown  also.  He  appeared  on  the  24th  of  March, 
161 1,  once  more  with  an  army  of  18,000  men  before  Prague, 
and  Archduke  Leopold  had  to  leave  the  city.  Andrew 
Hannivvald,  the  privy  councillor  who  during  the  later  years  of 
Rodolph's  reign  enjoyed  the  greatest  share  of  the  Emperor's 
confidence,  was  with  two  other  councillors  arrested  as  early 
as  the  30th  of  March.  He  was  threatened  with  torture  in 
order  to  force  from  him  a  confession  as  to  what  Rodolph  had 
intended  with  the  Passau  folk. 


234  RODOLPH     II. 

On  the  nth  of  April,  1611,  Rodolph  was  obliged  to 
renounce  the  crown  of  Bohemia  ;  and  on  the  26th  of  May 
Matthias  was  crowned  by  the  Cardinal  Francis  Dietrichstein 
at  Prague.  Rodolph,  by  way  of  indemnification,  received 
free  residence  at  the  Hradschin  and  an  annual  pension  of 
300,000  ducats,  which  were  assigned  on  the  revenue  of  the 
lordships  of  Budweis,  Parduwiz,  Lissa,  and  Rzedrow.  When 
signing  the  document  of  resignation,  Rodolph,  in  his  anger  at 
the  ungrateful  Bohemians  who  sided  with  Matthias,  threw 
his  hat  on  the  floor,  bit  the  pen  with  which  he  had  signed  his 
name,  and  flung  it  on  the  diploma ;  on  which,  as  Hormayr 
states,  "  the  blot  of  ink  is  seen  to  this  day." 

Matthias  remained  five  months  in  Prague,  where  he  took 
up  his  residence  in  the  "  Ring  "  (Circus)  of  the  Altstadt ;  yet 
he  never  saw  his  brother  the  Emperor,  who  as  usual  was  shut 
up  in  his  apartments  ;  they  only  exchanged  messages  through 
their  lord  chamberlains  and  privy  councillors.  On  the  ist  of 
September  Matthias  departed  for  the  Lusatian  countries  and 
for  Breslau. 

The  old  monarch,  who  for  several  years  past  had  been 
sufiering  from  the  gout,  was  quite  childish  and  imbecile.  O 
all  his  crowns  he  had  kept  only  that  of  the  German  Empire. 
The  German  princes,  who  had  long  held  him  in  contempt,  at 
last,  in  November,  161 1,  sent  an  embassy  to  Rodolph  to 
compel  him  to  cause  a  King  of  the  Romans  to  be  elected. 
Rodolph  received  the  envoys  standing,  with  his  left  hand 
leaning  on  a  table.  When  the  point  concerning  the  election 
of  a  King  of  the  Romans  was  mentioned,  the  blood  rushed 
to  his  temples,  his  knees  trembled,  and  he  was  obliged  to 
sit  down  on  a  chair.  After  the  embassy  had  withdrawn  he 
thus  expressed  himself  to  his  most  intimate  friend  Duke 
Henry  Juhus  of  Brunswick  :  "  Those  who  in  my  late  troubles 
and  calamities  have  lent  me  no  help,  and  have  never  had  a 
horse  saddled  in  my  service,  have  now  held  for  me  a  sort  of 
funeral  oration  ;  I  dare  say  they  have  sat  in  council  with  the 
Almighty,  and  perhaps  they  know  that  I  am  to  die  this  year, 
as  they  urge  so  very  strenuously  my  appointing  a  successor  in 
the  Holy  Roman  Empire."     The  plan  having  already  been 


THE    EMPEROR  S     DEATH  235 

mooted  of  electing  another,  and  perhaps,  for  the  first  time,  a 
Protestant  Emperor,  Rodolph  was  afraid  lest  he  might  be 
deposed  also  from  the  imperial  dignity.  In  this  apprehension 
he  unexpectedly  died — after  having,  on  the  evening  before, 
appeared  as  usual  at  dinner — on  the  20th  of  January,  1612, 
in  the  morning  at  seven  o'clock,  just  as  his  valet  was  going  to 
hand  him  a  fresh  shirt.  He  had  not  yet  completed  his  sixtieth 
year,  and  so  sudden  was  his  death  that  there  was  no  time  for 
administering  extreme  unction.  The  death  of  his  beautiful 
and  faithful  old  lion,  and  of  two  eagles,  which  he  had  every 
day  fed  with  his  own  hands,  broke  his  heart.  His  death  was 
kept  secret  for  some  time,  even  from  his  own  household ;  for 
which  purpose  the  table  continued  to  be  laid  at  the  usual 
time,  until  his  brother  Matthias  should  be  informed  of  the 
event.  Mortification  had  seized  his  thigh.  At  the  dissection, 
the  heart  and  the  other  vital  parts  were  found  still  sound  and 
vigorous.  The  body  was  embalmed  and  placed  in  a  coffin 
lined  with  red  velvet,  with  a  glass  lid  at  the  top,  through 
which  the  corpse  could  be  seen. 

Matthias,  after  having  received  the  news  of  the  death  of 
his  brother,  first  sent  Maximilian,  Count  Trautmannsdorf,  as 
his  commissary  to  Prague,  where  he  himself  arrived  on  the 
30th  of  January. 

5. — RodolpKs  natural  children. 

Rodolph  had  by  his  numerous  and  ever-changed  mistresses 
several  natural  children,  of  whom  six,  four  sons  and  two 
daughters,  have  been  known.  After  the  example  of  Maxi- 
milian I.,  he  allowed  the  four  sons,  whom  he  acknowledged 
as  his  own,  to  call  themselves  "  Lords  de  Austria."  They 
inherited  the  wild  passions  of  their  father. 

1.  Don  Carlos  de  Austria  served  the  Emperor  Ferdi- 
nand n.  in  the  Thirty  Years'  War ;  but  having  from  mere 
wantonness,  in  one  of  the  suburbs  of  Vienna,  taken  part  in  a 
riot  caused  by  a  woman  of  the  town,  he  was  killed  without 
being  known. 

2.  For  the  second  son,  Don  Giulio  de  Austria,  his  father 


236  RODOLPH     II. 

bought  the  large  Bohemian  lordship  of  Krummau,  which  now 
belongs  to  Prince  Schwartzenberg. 

3.  A  third  son  of  Rodolph,  Don  Matthias  de  Austria, 
as  Khevenhüller  states,  "came  in  1619  to  Spain,  to  see  the 
country  and  to  try  his  fortune ;  but  he  was  not  allowed  to 
come  to  Madrid ;  and,  after  his  score  had  been  paid  for  him, 
was  sent  back  with  4,000  ducats  to  Germany,  where  he  died 
in  1626. 

4.  A  fourth  of  these  illegitimate  scions  of  the  house  of 
Habsburg  was  put  to  death  by  his  father's  orders.  He 
was  called  Don  Cesare.  He  had  done  violence  to  a  young 
lady  of  noble  birth  and  murdered  her  afterwards.  Rodolph 
ordered  him  to  die  the  death  of  Seneca,  having  his  veins 
opened  in  a  warm  bath. 

Of  the  two  daughters,  one.  Donna  Carlota,  married  a 
Spanish  Count  Cantacroy,  of  the  Perrenot-Granvella  family ; 
and  the  other,  Donna  Dorothea,  died  in  a  convent. 


EARLY  YEARS  OF  MATTHIAS  237 


CHAPTER   VI 

Matthias — (1612-1619). 
7. — Personal  notices  of  the  Emperor, 

The  successor  of  Rodolph  II.  to  the  imperial  dignity,  as 
well  as  to  the  crowns — forcibly  wrested  from  him — of  Austria, 
Hungary,  and  Bohemia,  was  his  brother  Matthias,  whose 
reign  lasted  not  more  than  seven  years  (1612-1619). 

Matthias  was  born,  in  1557,  at  Vienna.  His  governors 
were  Auger  Gislain  de  Busbeck,  of  Comines  in  Flanders, 
and  Colonel  Ottavio  Baron  Cavriani,  an  Italian  of  Mantua. 
Busbeck  was  celebrated  as  a  scholar,  and  had  distinguished 
himself  in  the  diplomatic  career — especially  as  ambassador  of 
Ferdinand  I.  at  Constantinople,  at  the  court  of  Soleyman 
(1555-1562).  After  the  education  of  his  princely  pupil  was 
finished,  he  was  sent  to  the  sister  of  Rodolph  II.  and  Matthias, 
Elizabeth,  the  widow  of  Charles  IX.  of  France,  with  whom 
he  remained  in  the  capacity  of  councillor  until  his  death  at 
St.  Germain  in  1592.  Baron  Cavriani,  afterwards  master 
of  the  horse  to  Matthias,  was  one  of  the  most  splendid  and 
chivalrous  cavaliers  of  his  age,  and,  moreover,  one  of  the 
most  gallant  men  with  the  ladies.  He  died  shortly  before  his 
pupil,  in  1618. 

Matthias  profited  much  more  from  the  cavaHer  than  from 
the  scholar  and  diplomatist.  He  was  well  formed,  but  small, 
and  debilitated  in  body  and  mind.  When  not  prostrate  under 
the  tortures  of  gout,  which  sorely  tormented  him,  he  knew  no 
better  employment  for  his  time  than  court  festivals,  balls, 
jousting,  pageants,  and  the  chase.  Dancing  especially  was 
most  assiduously   cultivated   by   him,   which    made    Prince 


238  MATTHIAS 

Christian  of  Anhalt  once  say  that  his  Majesty,  if  the  right 
dance  should  once  begin,  was  not  likely  to  distinguish  himself 
by  his  steps. 

Rodolph's  hatred  had  long  rendered  the  life  of  Matthias 
cheerless.  When  in  1578  the  Netherlanders,  who  had  risen 
against  Spain,  called  him  in  as  their  stadtholder,  Rodolph  as 
well  as  Philip  II.  were  highly  incensed  against  him ;  and  yet 
he  had  only  the  title  of  a  stadtholder,  the  real  power  resting 
with  William  of  Orange.  Being  unable  to  maintain  himself 
at  his  post  at  Antwerp  after  1581,  he  resigned  his  office;  but 
remained  in  that  city  nine  months  longer  in  poverty  and 
retirement.  In  fact,  he  did  not  know  whither  to  turn.  The 
Emperor  refused  his  consent  to  a  marriage,  yet,  when  on 
this  he  turned  his  eyes  to  clerical  preferment,  asking  for  the 
bishopric  of  Liege,  the  commissaries  of  his  brother  excluded 
him.  After  this  he  lived  almost  like  a  prisoner  of  state  at 
Linz ;  he  had  not  even  the  power  of  changing  a  servant.  In 
vain  he  begged  to  be  allowed  to  renounce  all  his  hereditary 
claims  on  condition  of  the  town  and  lordship  of  Steyer  being 
settled  on  him.  At  the  Polish  election  of  a  king  in  1587  his 
younger  brother  Maximilian  was  supported  in  opposition  to 
him.  Afterwards  Rodolph  entrusted  him  with  diplomatical 
commissions,  in  particular  making  him  his  proxy  at  the  Diet 
of  Ratisbon  and  appointing  him  to  commands  in  Hungary ; 
but  refusing  his  imperial  ratification  to  his  decrees  and  the 
necessary  means  for  making  war.  When  the  Emperor  medi- 
tated, contrary  to  the  family  statutes,  to  deprive  him  of  the 
succession  in  order  to  settle  it  upon  Ferdinand  and  Leopold 
(the  Bishop  of  Passau)  of  the  Styrian  line,  Matthias  had 
scarcely  any  other  choice  but  to  proceed  to  extremities.  Thus 
then  he  forced,  with  arras  in  hand,  the  crown  from  his  harsh 
brother. 

A  short  time  only  before  Rodolph's  death  Matthias  was 
allowed  to  take  a  wife.  The  chosen  lady  was  Ann,  daughter 
of  Ferdinand  of  Tyrol  by  the  Princess  of  Mantua,  whom  that 
archduke  had  married  after  the  death  of  his  beloved  Philippina 
Welser.  Before  that  Matthias  had  lived  with  a  mistress, 
Susan  Wächter.     Matthias,  at  the  age  of  fifty-four,  married 


HIS     MARRIAGE  239 

the  Princess  Ann,  who  was  then  in  her  twenty-seventh  year, 
on  the  4th  of  December,  1611,  just  after  his  return  from  the 
Bohemian  coronation  to  Vienna.  Seven  weeks  after,  Rodolph 
died  ;  and  on  the  24th  of  June,  1612,  Matthias  was  elected  Em- 
peror, in  opposition  to  the  far  more  able  Duke  Maximilian  of 
Bavaria,  whom  Henry  IV.  of  France,  the  wisest  prince  of  his 
time,  had  suggested.  Saxony,  and  the  spiritual  Electors, 
according  to  Khevenhüller,  inclined  rather  to  the  Archduke 
Albert,  governor  of  the  Netherlands,  the  younger  brother  of 
Matthias,  but  they  gave  their  votes  to  the  latter.  He  was 
crowned  at  Frankfort  with  a  magnificence  scarcely  ever 
witnessed  before.  He  made  his  appearance  on  a  brown 
Spanish  stallion,  with  a  retinue  of  2,000  horses,  more  than 
3,000  men,  and  a  hundred  coaches  drawn  by  six  horses  each  ; 
the  latter  being  a  new  fashion  lately  introduced  from  France 
to  Germany.  The  Emperor,  who  lodged  at  the  large  mansion 
called  the  "  Braunfels,"  remained  from  the  30th  of  May  to  the 
23rd  of  June.  All  the  Electors,  except  the  one  of  Branden- 
burg, who  sent  his  son  as  his  proxy,  and  many  other  princes 
of  the  Empire,  had  appeared  in  person;  "it  was"  as  the 
historian  says,  "  as  if  people  were  to  take  leave  of  each  other  for 
ever." 

Matthias  derived  little  joy  from  the  crowns  which  he  had 
wrested  from  his  brother.  Very  nearly  the  same  fate  which 
he  had  himself  prepared  for  Rodolph  was  prepared  for  him  by 
his  cousin  Archduke  Ferdinand ;  who  was  his  tormentor,  just 
as  Matthias  had  been  Rodolph's.  In  June,  161 7,  he  was 
obliged,  contrary  to  the  most  urgent  remonstrance  of  Cardinal 
Clesel,  to  take  Ferdinand  to  Prague  to  have  him  crowned  as 
King  of  Bohemia ;  the  Bohemians  having  consented  to  elect 
and  crown  the  zealous  Papist  because  he  took  his  oath  to 
them  on  the  •'  Majestäts-brief."  From  Prague  Matthias  went 
with  Ferdinand  on  a  visit  to  his  brother  Maximilian,  who 
since  1595  had  been  grand  master  of  the  Teutonic  order; 
Cardinal  Clesel  repairing  in  the  meanwhile  to  Dresden  to 
gain  over  the  Elector  John  George  to  the  Austrian  interest. 
The  Emperor  then  went  home  with  Ferdinand,  intending  to 
accompany  him  to  Hungary,  to  have  him  crowned  there  with 


240  MATTHIAS 

the  crown  of  St.  Stephen.  Matthias,  however,  having  fallen 
sick  soon  after  his  arrival  in  Austria,  sent,  as  his  commis- 
saries to  Ferdinand's  coronation  at  Pressburg,  Cardinal  Clesel 
and  Archduke  Maximilian.  Just  as  Ferdinand  was  proclaimed 
at  Pressburg  as  King  of  Hungary,  the  great  crash  occurred 
in  Bohemia  which  ushered  in  the  Thirty  Years'  War. 

2. — The  Thirty  Years'  War — "  Defenestratio  Pragensis" — 
Characteristics  of  the  actors  in  it. 

Matthias  had  left  behind,  in  Bohemia,  a  regency  of  seven 
Papist  and  three  Protestant  councillors.  The  Jesuits,  who  in 
1617,  at  the  coronation  of  their  pupil  Ferdinand,  had  made 
their  entry  into  Prague  in  his  train,  were  quietly  at  work 
among  the  councillors  and  the  people.  They  had  on  that 
occasion  caused  a  triumphal  arch  to  be  built  for  Ferdinand, 
on  which,  symbolically  and  significantly,  the  Bohemian  lion 
was  chained  to  the  arms  of  Austria.  The  reverend  fathers 
circulated  a  host  of  pamphlets,  in  which  the  means  were 
discussed  for  bringing  back  the  whole  of  Europe  to  the 
Church  of  Rome.  An  apostate  Calvinist,  Caspar  Scioppius 
(Schoppe),  a  man  full  of  wit  and  impassioned  energy,  in  his 
**  Alarm-drum  of  the  Holy  War,"  proclaimed  in  the  plainest 
language  that  "  the  only  way  to  reach  that  end  was  a  path  of 
blood.**  As  if  a  harbinger  of  the  bloody  events  which  were 
about  to  happen,  a  large  comet  was  seen  in  the  heavens 
every  night  of  the  year  1618.  Men's  passions  were  heated; 
the  two  parties  faced  each  other  in  threatening  attitude  ;  the 
Protestants,  conscious  of  theirs  being  the  stronger  one,  were 
resolved  to  strike  the  blow  as  soon  as  any  fitting  opportunity 
should  present  itself.  And  an  opportunity  soon  did  present 
itself. 

According  to  the  clauses  of  the  Royal  Letter  (the  Majes- 
täts-brief) of  Rodolph  n.,  free  exercise  of  religion  was  only 
granted  to  the  secular  lords  and  knights  (barons),  and  to  the 
inhabitants  of  the  royal  towns  and  demesnes.  When,  there- 
fore, it  happened  that  the  Protestants  of  two  spiritual 
dominions  of  the  territory  of  the  Abbot  of  Braunau,  and  of 


A    MOMENTOUS    STEP  24I 

the  convent  of  Grab  near  Töplitz,  were  going  to  erect  new 
churches,  the  Archbishop  of  Prague,  in  whose  province  those 
territories  were  situated,  gave  orders  for  the  destruction  of 
the  commenced  buildings.  On  this  the  Utraquists — which 
name  the  Bohemian  dissidents  had  borne  ever  since  the 
Hussite  times — caused  the  assembly  of  their  delegates,  the 
so-called  defensors,  to  be  summoned.  This  was  one  of  the 
privileges  granted  to  them  by  the  Royal  Letter.  They  now 
applied  to  the  Emperor  at  Vienna.  His  Majesty  not  only 
took  no  heed  of  their  remonstrances,  but  an  order  was  issued 
to  dissolve  the  assembly.  As  the  defensors  thought  them- 
selves justified  in  supposing  this  order  to  have  been  concocted 
by  the  regents,  they  resolved  upon  the  step  of  the  23rd  of 
May,  1618 — one  of  the  most  momentous  in  the  history  of  the 
world. 

The  two  most  obnoxious  of  the  Papist  members  of  the 
regency  were  Barons  Jaroslav  Bortzita  Martinitz  and  William 
Slawata. 

Martinitz  was  born  in  1582.  He  had  enjoyed  great  favour 
with  Rodolph  H.,  whom,  as  a  boy  of  fourteen,  he  had  compli- 
mented in  a  Latin  speech,  for  which  the  Emperor  forthwith 
declared  the  little  orator  of  age.  At  the  age  of  sixteen  he 
inherited  the  immense  fortune  of  an  uncle,  from  which  he  lent 
to  the  Emperor  100,000  florins  for  a  war  against  the  Turks. 
On  a  tour  in  Italy  he  was  graciously  received  by  the  Holy 
Father,  who  made  him  a  gift  of  some  relics  for  his  family 
chapel  at  Prague.  Rodolph  appointed  him  on  his  return  lord- 
lieutenant  of  the  circle  of  Schlan,  in  addition  to  which  he  was 
nominated,  by  the  Emperor  Matthias,  Burgrave  of  Carlstein. 

Slawata  was  born  in  1568.  Having  for  some  time 
served  under  Rodolph  H.  as  lord  chamberlain,  he  was  now 
lord  chief  justice  and  president  of  the  chamber  (lord  trea- 
surer) of  Bohemia.  He  had  gone  over  from  the  Protestant 
Church  to  that  of  Rome  for  the  sake  of  his  marriage  with  a 
rich  heiress,  and  he  now  showed  himself  so  intolerant  against 
his  former  co-religionists  that  he  is  said  to  have  driven  his 
peasants  with  hounds  to  mass,  and  to  have  crammed  the 
wafer  down  their  throats  by  force. 

VOL.  I  16 


242  MATTHIAS 

On  the  23rd  of  May,  1618,  about  noon,  the  Utraquist 
delegates,  attended  by  a  numerous  train  of  servants,  and 
nearly  all  of  them  armed,  repaired  to  the  Hradschin  at 
Prague,  proceeding  straightway  to  the  "  Bohemian  Chan- 
cellerie,"  the  council-room  where  the  regents  were  sitting. 
The  Utraquists  were  headed  by  Count  Henry  Matthias 
Thurn,^  with  whom  were  William  Lobkowitz,  of  the  zealously 
Protestant  Hassenstein  line  of  that  family ;  also  Colonels 
Ulric  Kinsky  and  Leonard  Colonna  von  Fels,  three  Counts 
Schlick,  Paul  von  Rzitschan,  and  a  host  of  other  Bohemian 
lords.  They  found  in  the  council-room  only  four  of  the 
imperial  councillors — Martinitz  and  Slawata,  and  besides 
them  the  old  Burgrave  Adam  von  Sternberg  and  Matthew 
Leopold  Popel  Lobkowitz,  grand  prior  of  the  order  of  the 
knights  of  St.  John  in  Bohemia.  After  a  short  alterca- 
tion, Sternberg  and  Lobkowitz  were  with  scorn  and  derision 
led  out  of  the  room  ;  on  the  other  two,  Martinitz  and  Slawata, 
it  was  resolved  there  and  then  to  execute,  according  to  ancient 
Bohemian  usage,  the  punishment  of  "  defenestration,"  by 
flinging  them,  "  as  they  were,  in  their  Spanish  costume,  with 
cloaks  and  hats,"  from  the  window  into  the  dry  ditch  of  the 
castle.  To  complete  the  trio,  the  secretary  Philip  Fabricius 
was  precipitated  after  them.  They  fell  from  a  height  of  nearly 
sixty  feet,  but,  owing  to  their  cloaks  filling  with  air  and 
thereby  breaking  the  fall,  and  to  their  alighting  on  a  heap  of 
waste  paper  and  other  rubbish,  they  all  of  them  miraculously 
escaped  with  their  lives.  The  very  humble  and  very  polite 
secretary,  who  was  expedited  last,  is  said  to  have  had  sufficient 
presence  of  mind,  as  he  fell  upon  Baron  Martinitz,  most 
earnestly  to  beg  his  Excellency's  pardon. 

Martinitz,  as  Khevenhiiller  writes,  fell  in  a  sitting  posture; 
Slawata  with  his  head  downwards,  which  he  got  so  badly 
entangled  in  his  cloak,  that  he  would  undoubtedly  have 
been  choked  had  not  Martinitz  assisted  him  to  rise.    Whilst 

1  Thurn  was  no  native  of  Bohemia,  but  had  inherited  from  his  mother 
some,  although  not  very  considerable,  estates  in  that  country.  He  after- 
wards acquired  there  very  extensive  landed  property  to  the  value  of  half  a 
million  florins,  which,  combined  with  his  eminent  personal  qualities,  gained 
for  him  great  influence  in  the  Assembly  of  the  Bohemian  Estates. 


"  DEFENESTRATIO  PRAGENSIS  "  243 

Martinitz  was  still  lying  and  rolling  about,  two  shots  were 
fired  on  him  ;  one  of  which  grazed  his  collar,  and  the  other 
discoloured  the  flesh  of  his  left  hand. 

Martinitz  and  Slawata  took  refuge  in  the  adjoining  house 
of  the  Chief  Chancellor  Adalbert  Popel  Lobkowitz,  who  at 
that  time  was  at  Vienna,  which  saved  him  from  being  involved 
in  the  catastrophe.  His  lady  caused  a  ladder  to  be  lowered  to 
them  from  a  window,  and  took  the  kindest  care  of  them. 
Martinitz  feigned  to  be  dying,  begged  his  confessor  to  give 
him  absolution,  and  thus  deceived  his  enemies.  He  then 
secretly  had  his  beard  taken  off  and  his  face  stained,  disguis- 
ing himself  as  a  groom.  Thus  attired  he  left  the  house  of 
his  heroic  protectress  at  nightfall,  went  to  his  own  house,  and 
from  thence  to  a  light  waggon  which  was  waiting  for  him  at 
the  White  Mountain,  and  in  which  he  escaped  to  Munich. 
The  secretary,  Philip  Fabricius,  likewise  was  fortunate  enough 
to  get  off  at  once  and  to  reach  Vienna,  where  he  brought  to 
the  Emperor  the  first  intelligence  of  the  catastrophe.  Fer- 
dinand H.  afterwards  ennobled  him  under  the  very  significant 
name  of  Baron  von  Hohenfall  (Highfall),  settUng  on  him 
some  fine  estates  from  the  confiscated  property  of  the  Bohe- 
mian rebels. 

Slawata  was  detained  for  some  time  at  Prague  by  his 
wounds.  His  wife  having  gone  on  her  knees  to  the  Countess 
Thurn,  he  received  permission  to  remain  as  a  prisoner  in  his 
own  house,  and  then  for  some  time  at  the  springs  of  Töplitz. 
After  having  recovered  his  health,  he  was  allowed  to  quit 
Bohemia  likewise.  Leaving  all  his  property  behind,  he  settled 
with  the  old  Burgrave  Sternberg  at  Passau,  where  they  were 
joined  by  Martinitz,  who  was  Sternberg's  son-in-law.  The 
Grand  Prior  Matthew  Lobkowitz  fled  to  Dresden. 

All  these  lords  returned  to  Bohemia  after  a  short  exile,  and 
were  loaded  with  favours  by  Ferdinand  H.  Martinitz  was 
raised  in  1621,  as  Jaroslav  "  Schmeissansky"^  of  Martinitz, 
to  the  rank  of  count  in  the  Bohemian  peerage,  and  in  1623 

1  Like  the  name  "Hohenfall,"  this  is  an  allusion  to  the  throwing 
out  of  the  window,  "  schmeissen  "  being  an  expression,  now  degenerated 
into  a  vulgarism,  the  meaning  of  which  is  "to  fling." 

16 — 2 


244 


MATTHIAS 


in  that  of  the  Empire.  He  died  in  164g  at  the  age  of  sixty- 
seven.  His  daughter  married  the  outlawed  Margrave  of  Bran- 
denburg, the  administrator  of  Magdeburg,  whom  Pappenheim 
made  prisoner  at  the  taking  of  that  city.  The  male  line  of 
his  house  growing  extinct  in  1789,  its  name  and  estates  passed 
through  the  heiress  of  the  last  count  to  the  family  of  Clam- 
Martinitz. 

Slawata  likewise  was  created  a  count  in  1623.  He  died 
at  the  advanced  age  of  eighty,  in  1652,  at  Vienna.  Through 
his  wife,  Lucy  von  Neuhaus,  he  became  possessed  of  the 
extensive  estates  of  that  noble  family ;  but,  as  his  own  race 
became  extinct  in  the  male  line  as  early  as  1691,  the  Neuhaus 
property  passed  to  the  son-in-law  of  the  last  Count  Slawata, 
Count  Czernin  of  Chudenitz,  whose  descendants  are  still  its 
owners. 

The  actual  perpetrators  of  the  defenestration  were  Thurn, 
William  Lobkowitz-Hassenstein,  Colonels  Ulric  Kinsky  and 
Leonard  Colonna  von  Fels,  besides  Albert  John  Smirczicky, 
one  of  the  richest  landed  nobles,  and  a  rich  attorney,  Martin 
Frühwein.  Khevenhüller  does  not  fail  to  point  out  that  all 
the  authors  of  this  outrage  came  to  an  untimely  end.  Four 
of  them  died  rather  suddenly,  and  Frühwein  especially.  He 
was  arrested  in  1621,  and,  a  short  time  before  the  day  of 
bloody  retribution  in  Prague,  threw  himself  into  the  same 
ditch  into  which  he  had  before  helped  to  fling  the  imperial 
councillors ;  and,  although  the  height  from  which  he  fell  was 
much  less  than  that  from  the  council-room,  he  was  killed  on 
the  spot. 

Smirczicky,  "  a  lord  with  a  yearly  income  of  300,000 
florins,  and  without  any  debts,"  was  already  dead  six  months 
after  the  defenestration.  At  the  siege  of  Pilsen,  a  cannon-ball 
falling  near  him,  and  the  loose  soil  flying  into  his  face,  he  was 
so  frightened  that  he  fell  into  a  high  fever,  of  which  he  died, 
leaving  his  name  and  his  property  to  his  "  laughing  heirs." 

Smirczicky's  death  took  place  in  Prague,  on  the  i8th  of 
November,  1618.  There  was,  however,  a  report  alluded  to  by 
the  "  Rhenish  Antiquary  "  (published  by  Baron  Stramberg, 
Coblenz,  1844),  that  the  "high  fever  "  had  had  a  very  good 


FATE     OF    THE     "  DEFENESTRATORS  245 

reason,  and  by  no  means  the  futile  one  which  we  have  given 
from  Khevenhüller. 

"  The  laughing  heirs  "  were  the  imperial  treasury  and  the  new 
Catholic  ^^  chain  of  nobles''  of  Austria.  After  the  battle  of  the 
White  Mountain  all  the  vast  Sniivczicky  property  was  confiscated. 
Wallenstein,  whose  mother  was  a  Smirczicky,^  then  acquired 
Gitschin,  which  now  belongs  to  the  Trautmannsdorfs.  The 
surviving  heiress.  Baroness  Slawata,  was  forced  to  emigrate, 
and  went  to  live  with  the  Landgravine  Amalia  of  Cassel,  who 
had  formerly  been  engaged  to  her  brother. 

Colonel  Ulric  Kinsky  also  died  a  sudden  death  in  1619, 
during  the  Austrian  campaign,  and  likewise  Colonel  Colonna 
von  Fels  in  the  Bohemian  campaign  of  1620.  Henry 
Matthias  Count  Thurn  got  off  with  being  exiled ;  as,  after 
the  battle  of  the  White  Mountain,  he  fled  with  Frederic, 
the  Elector  Palatine  and  the  elected  King  of  the  Bohemians, 
to  Holland,  he  lost  all  his  estates.  He  passed  through  all 
the  vicissitudes  of  the  war,  during  which  he  served  the 
Bohemian  cause  both  as  a  soldier  and  as  a  diplomatist.  In 
the  latter  capacity  he  went  to  Venice,  to  Constantinople,  to 
Copenhagen,  and  to  Stockholm.  In  1630  he  landed  with 
Gustavus  Adolphus  in  Germany ;  and  in  1641  he  died  (having 

1  Smirczicky  left  two  sisters,  one  of  whom  married  Henry  Slawata,  who 
professed  the  Calvinist  religion.  This  lady,  Margaret  Salome  Smirczicky, 
had  an  elder  sister,  Elizabeth  Catharine,  whom  her  father  had,  for  some 
suspicion  or  other,  kept  for  twelve  years  imprisoned  in  a  castle.  Many 
considered  her  innocent,  but  her  own  sister  had,  from  interested  motives, 
most  strongly  opposed  her  being  set  at  liberty.  At  the  death  of  the  brother 
Slawata  came  into  possession  of  all  the  estates  of  the  family,  and  also  the 
guardianship  of  the  imprisoned  lady.  The  condition  of  the  latter,  however, 
had  been  changed  in  the  meanwhile.  A  neighbouring  Bohemian  noble, 
Otto  von  Wartenberg,  scaled  the  walls  of  the  castle  in  which  she  was  con- 
fined, and  at  once  married  her.  Wartenberg  was  a  Lutheran,  which 
induced  the  tenants  to  acknowledge  him,  the  husband  of  the  elder  heiress, 
as  the  rightful  owner.  A  lawsuit  ensued,  in  which  Wartenberg,  however, 
did  not  plead.  In  the  meanwhile  the  Calvinist  "  Palatinate  "  lung  came 
to  the  country.  As  Wartenberg  now  surrendered,  he  was  arrested,  and 
the  estates  adjudged  to  the  Calvinist  Slawata.  Wartenberg's  wife  was  at 
that  time  at  Gitschin,  which  afterwards  belonged  to  Wallenstein.  When 
Slawata,  at  the  end  of  1619,  came  thither,  with  the  seven  royal  commissaries 
and  a  retinue  of  sixty  persons,  to  take  possession  of  the  estates,  the  heroic 
lady  blew  up  the  castle ;  whereby  all  her  maids,  the  garrison  of  the  castle,  and  the 
royal  commissaries  were  killed  on  the  spot.  Her  corpse  was  afterwards  found,  with 
the  head  and  face  burnt  and  all  her  bones  broken. 


246  MATTHIAS 

retired,  after  the  battle  of  Nördlingen  in  1634,  to  Sweden), 
at  the  age  of  seventy-three,  at  Pernau,  in  the  Swedish 
province  of  Livonia.  He  came  to  Prague  once  more  after 
the  battle  of  Breitenfeld  in  1631 ;  but  he  found  his  wife 
gone,  and  never  saw  her  again  after  his  flight  from  Prague 
in  1620.  His  only  son  he  lost  in  the  Prussian  war  of  1628. 
His  grandsons  remained  in  Sweden.  William  Lobkowitz- 
Hassenstein,  who  had  accepted  from  King  Frederic  the  office 
of  high  steward  [Landhofmeister),  but  who,  after  the  taking 
of  Prague,  remained  behind,  and  acted  as  mediator  between 
the  Bohemians  and  the  Emperor's  government,  was  included 
in  the  wholesale  capital  convictions  of  1621,  but  escaped  with 
imprisonment  for  life,  his  estates  being  given  to  Count  Maxi- 
milian Trautmannsdorf. 

The  throwing  out  of  the  window,  the  defenestratio  Pragensis, 
was  the  signal  for  the  Thirty  Years'  War;  the  second  and 
most  sanguinary,  which  was  waged  under  the  pretence  of 
religion,  but  in  truth  for  very  worldly,  and  even  basely 
worldly,  interests.  The  war  of  the  Hussites  was  just  as 
fanatical,  but  it  was  purer.  Both  wars  began  in  Prague  ; 
the  Thirty  Years'  War  also  ended  there. 

Immediately  after  the  defenestration.  Count  Thurn  rode 
through  the  streets  of  Prague,  exhorting  the  people  to  be 
quiet.  The  castle  was  occupied  by  parliamentary  troops; 
the  public  officers  were  sworn  in,  on  the  authority  of  the 
Estates ;  a  committee  of  thirty  directors  was  appointed  for 
carrying  on  the  government ;  and  Count  Thurn  received  his 
commission  as  lieutenant-general  and  commander-in-chief  of 
the  army  to  be  raised.  The  first  step  of  the  Bohemians  was 
the  expulsion  of  the  Jesuits.  Three  towns  only  remained 
true  to  the  Emperor,  Pilsen,  Budweis,  and  Krummau. 

3. — Downfall  of  Cardinal  Clesel — Death  of  Matthias, 

When  the  news  of  the  catastrophe  of  Prague  reached 
Vienna,  the  old,  worn-out,  gouty  Emperor  Matthias  was  for 
making  concessions,  in  which  opinion  he  was  joined  by 
Cardinal  Clesel,  who  for  the  last  six   years   had   been   his 


KIDNAPPING     OF     CARDINAL    CLESEL  247 

chief  of  the  cabinet,  all-powerful  premier,  and  confessor.  It 
was  said  that  the  Hussites  had  once  made  the  whole  of 
Germany  and  Hungary  tremble,  how  should  the  Bohemians 
now  be  conquered,  who  were  supported  by  the  Union  and 
by  all  their  Protestant  brethren  in  Europe  ?  The  Archduke 
Ferdinand  (of  Grätz)  was  so  much  the  more  determined  in 
his  opposition  to  leniency.  He  wrote  to  the  Emperor  that 
God  himself  had  ordained  the  Bohemian  troubles,  in  order 
that  the  chief  pretext  of  the  rebels,  that  they  did  everything 
for  the  sake  of  religion,  might  be  defeated.  Under  this  pre- 
text they  had  hitherto  only  laboured  to  rob  their  sovereign 
of  all  his  rights,  revenues,  and  subjects.  If  authority  was 
of  God,  then  the  conduct  of  these  subjects  must  be  of  the 
devil ;  and  he  considered  that  nothing  now  remained  but  to 
let  the  matter  be  decided  by  the  sword. 

Ferdinand  did  not  allow  the  irresolution  of  the  Emperor 
to  interfere  with  his  levies  for  the  army.  On  the  contrary, 
he  came  to  an  understanding  with  the  legate  of  the  Pope, 
with  the  Spanish  ambassador.  Count  Ognade,  and  with  the 
court  aristocracy,  to  remove,  by  a  sudden  and  determined 
blow,  the  plebeian,  the  baker's  son.  Cardinal  Clesel,  from 
about  the  person  of  the  Emperor.  A  rifle-shot  which  had 
been  aimed  at  the  cardinal's  head  at  Pressburg  during  the 
Hungarian  Diet  had  missed.  King  Ferdinand  and  Maxi- 
milian, the  brother  of  the  Emperor,  were  aware  of  Clesel's 
having  said  that  '*  the  archduke  and  Ferdinand  were  neither 
of  them  of  any  use  at  Vienna."  They  accordingly  paid  to 
the  proud  prelate — who,  since  he  had  been  made  a  cardinal, 
claimed  all  the  honours  due  to  a  crowned  head — a  visit,  in 
order  to  oblige  him,  according  to  the  existing  rules  of  eti- 
quette, to  call  on  them  in  return.  The  old  cardinal,  lulled 
into  security  by  Maximilian,  had  not  the  least  foreboding  of 
the  storm  which  was  gathering  over  his  head.  He  came 
at  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  on  the  20th  of  July,  1618, 
with  the  apostolic  nuncio,  who,  having  just  called  on  him, 
accompanied  him  to  the  imperial  castle ;  and  he  went  up 
with  his  suite  to  the  apartments  of  Ferdinand,  to  whom 
he  wished  to  pay  his  visit  in  return.     On  the  staircase,  he 


248  MATTHIAS 

was  received  by  the  chamberlain  Von  Stein,  who  apolo- 
gised in  the  name  of  the  King;  his  Majesty,  as  he  said, 
being  prevented  by  slight  indisposition  from  coming  to  meet 
the  prelate.  Ferdinand,  however,  was  closeted  in  an  inner 
room  with  Archduke  Maximilian  and  the  Spanish  ambas- 
sador. When  the  cardinal  entered  the  reception-room,  he 
found  the  chamberlain  Seyfried  von  Breuner,  who,  instead  of 
announcing  him,  told  him  that  the  whole  house  of  Austria, 
in  agreement  with  his  Holiness  the  Pope  and  his  Catholic 
Majesty,  had  determined,  on  account  of  the  cardinal's  per- 
verse government,  and  on  account  of  the  offences  enumerated 
in  a  warrant  herewith  handed  to  him,  not  to  allow  him  to 
remain  any  longer  in  Vienna.  Wherefore  he  had  to  take  off 
his  cardinal's  hat  and  cloak,  put  on  the  black  hat  and  cloth 
mantle,  in  readiness  for  him,  and  to  follow  without  delay  the 
colonels  then  present.  Count  Dampierre,  Rombald  Collalto, 
and  Ernst  MontecucuH.  A  violent  altercation  ensued. 
Count  Dampierre  said  to  the  cardinal,  "You  graceless, 
wicked  knave !  your  evil  doings  can  no  longer  be  endured ; 
if  you  will  not  yield  quietly,  we  will  teach  you  differently." 

At  last  Clesel  submitted  to  his  fate.  The  colonels  led  the 
prelate  through  a  long,  narrow,  secret  passage  out  of  the 
castle  to  the  "  Bastion ;  "  and  from  thence  through  the  for- 
tifications, out  by  the  Scotch  Gate  (Schotten  Thor).  There 
he  was  placed  with  Breuner  and  a  Scotchman  in  a  covered 
carriage  drawn  by  six  horses.  Some  way  off  two  hundred 
cuirassiers  of  Dampierre  were  waiting,  and  relays  of  horses 
were  in  readiness  at  all  the  stages.  Thus  Clesel  was  carried 
through  Styria  to  Archduke  IMaximilian's  castle  of  Ambrass 
near  Innsbruck,  where,  being  every  day  sumptuously  served 
on  silver,  he  was  waited  upon  as  a  prince,  but  at  the  same 
time  kept  in  close  confinement  as  a  prisoner  of  state.  After 
the  death  of  Matthias  only,  he  was  allowed  to  reside  at  the 
Benedictine  abbey  of  Georgenberg.  In  1622  the  Pope  re- 
claimed him  to  be  transferred  to  the  castle  of  St.  Angelo, 
where  the  Holy  Father  visited  him  in  person ;  and  in  1623 
his  innocence  was  acknowledged  by  the  Emperor  Ferdinand 
II.,  who  the  year  after,  through  Prince  Eggenberg,  invited 


A     FAIR     PRIZE  249 

him  to  return  to  Austria.  Clesel,  however,  did  not  at  that 
time  enter  upon  it,  but  wrote  to  Maximilian  of  Bavaria : 
"  The  journey  to  court  is  not  advisable.  I  am  not  fit  for 
such  rule ;  I  should  relapse  into  the  old  offence.  I  cannot 
bear  to  hear  of  it,  and  still  less  wish  to  see  it.  I  am  so  far 
from  their  ways  that  I  do  not  understand  their  fundamental 
principles.  I  am  too  old  to  learn — intelligenti  yanca"  Three 
years  later  the  old  prelate  after  all  came  back  from  Rome. 
In  January,  1627,  he  made  his  entry  into  Vienna  among  the 
ringing  of  all  the  bells.  After  his  return  to  his  see,  he 
preached  twice  more.  He  died  in  his  seventy-eighth  year, 
at  Neustadt,  8th  of  September,  1630,  and  was  buried  in  the 
cathedral  of  St.  Stephen  at  Vienna.  Clesel,  even  after  his 
restoration,  pronounced  against  the  harsh  measures  of  Fer- 
dinand, by  which  "  the  Protestant  nobles,  and  even  the 
richest  of  them,  were  driven  to  emigration,  the  money  drawn 
from  the  country,  trade  and  commerce  ruined,  and  yet  the 
Acatholics  not  made  Catholics."  He  was  for  a  middle  course, 
— "  not  to  allow  the  Protestant  lords  free  exercise  of  religion 
and  schools,  but  to  keep  them  in  the  country ;  the  children 
would  then  be  obliged  to  become  Catholics  again."  During 
the  last  three  years  of  his  stay  at  Vienna  he  was  attached  to 
that  party  in  the  court  which  was  hostile  to  Wallenstein.  He 
was  indeed  one  of  the  principal  enemies  of  the  great  general 
whose  dismissal  he  still  lived  to  see. 

Immediately  after  the  removal  of  the  cardinal,  the  Domi- 
nican prior  Hüttner,  who  was  waiting  for  him  in  an  outer 
room,  was  summoned  before  Ferdinand,  and  ordered  to  give 
up  the  keys  of  the  chests  where  Clesel's  papers  and  treasure 
were  kept.  There  were  found  in  the  latter  400,000  ducats 
in  ready  cash  alone,  which  strangely  contrasted  with  the 
financial  distress  of  the  court.  The  cardinal's  money  was  at 
once  declared  fair  prize,  and  probably  the  desire  of  confisca- 
tion had  not  a  little  weight  in  deciding  his  fate. 

When  all  was  over  the  two  archdukes  appeared  at  the 
bedside  of  the  invalid  Emperor,  telling  him  what  had  hap- 
pened, and  putting  in  his  hands  an  information  against  "  the 
man  who  had  abused  his  confidence  and  whom  they  had  been 


250  MATTHIAS 

obliged  to  put  out  of  the  way  of  doing  any  more  harm." 
Matthias,  tormented  by  the  gout,  was  quite  flushed  with 
amazement,  pressed  the  coverlet  of  his  bed  to  his  mouth, 
but  did  not  speak  one  word.  He  would  fain  have  given 
orders  for  arresting  Ferdinand  and  Maximilian,  or  at  least 
their  principal  advisers,  Eggenberg  and  Stadion ;  but  he 
dared  not  do  it,  and  he  had  no  one  with  him  in  whom  he 
might  trust.  He  therefore  submitted,  increased  his  body- 
guard, and  had  his  chamber  more  carefully  bolted.  As  soon 
as  he  could  say  it,  he  declared  that  he  felt  much  more  hurt 
by  Clesel's  captivity  than  by  the  Bohemian  outrage.  He  at 
once  despatched  a  courier  to  the  Pope ;  but  the  archdukes 
kept  his  messenger  back  until  their  own  had  got  a  start  of 
him.  Ferdinand  resolutely  declared  that  he  would  rather 
resign  his  two  crowns  of  Hungary  and  Bohemia  than  allow 
the  cardinal  to  be  restored.  He,  however,  offered  "  to  throw 
himself  at  the  feet  of  his  Imperial  Majesty,  and  to  undertake 
in  Clesel's  place  the  presidency  of  the  privy  council,  but  to 
submit  every  matter  before  deciding  on  it  to  his  Majesty's 
most  gracious  pleasure."  The  Empress,  whom  the  archdukes 
apprised  of  the  event  through  her  chief  chamberlain  Maxi- 
milian Trautmannsdorf,  was  greatly  agitated  on  hearing  it, 
and  bluntly  declared  to  them  that  she  saw  very  plainly  that 
her  husband  and  lord  was  living  too  long  for  them,  and  that 
they  were  already  tired  of  waiting.  She  died  some  months 
after,  on  the  14th  of  December,  1618,  at  the  age  of  thirty-two, 
and  Matthias  followed  her  on  the  20th  of  March,  1619.  His 
death,  like  that  of  his  brother  Rodolph,  was  quite  sudden, 
overtaking  him  in  the  morning,  at  seven,  in  his  bed,  "  whilst," 
as  Khevenhüller  writes,  "  he  was  just  going  to  raise  himself  to 
take  his  usual  cup  of  capon  broth."  They  administered  to 
him  extreme  unction,  but  he  never  was  conscious  again.  A 
great  sensation  was  caused  by  the  fulfilment  of  Kepler's 
prognostic  of  seven  M's,  drawn  for  the  year  1619 :  "  Magnus 
Monarcha  Mtmdi  Medio  Mense  Martio  Morietur." 

Matthias  died  almost  under  the  same  melancholy  circum- 
stances which  he  had  himself  brought  about  for  his  brother 
Rodolph — *'  deserted  by  everybody,"  as  the  Saxon  resident 


FERDINAND  S  ACCESSION  25I 

stated,  "there  being  very  few  in  his  antechamber  at  the 
ordinary  hour  of  attendance,  whereas  in  the  King's  (Ferdinand) 
apartments  there  is  such  a  crowd  that  one  can  scarcely  move." 
The  Elector  of  Saxony  had  some  time  before  proposed  to  the 
Elector-Archbishop  of  Cologne  the  question  whether  the 
Emperor  could  still  be  considered  as  stii  compos? 

About  one  month  previous  to  Clesel's  overthrow  Fer- 
dinand had  been  crowned  with  the  crown  of  St.  Stephen  of 
Hungary.  Very  inauspicious  omens  happened  on  that  occa- 
sion. The  tower  where  the  crown  was  kept  having  been 
struck  by  lightning,  a  link  of  the  diadem  got  loose  at  the 
coronation,  and  the  belt  of  the  royal  sword  broke.  Ferdinand 
took  his  oath  on  the  Hungarian  Capitulation  which,  in  the 
point  of  religion,  he  as  little  intended  to  keep  as  he  did  the 
Bohemian.  He  was  now  master  of  all  the  Austrian  lands  of 
the  house  of  Habsburg ;  and  he  soon  made  the  world  feel 
that  he  was  so. 

As  he  trusted  no  Austrian,  the  chief  command  of  the  army 
was  given  to  two  foreign  officers,  Boucquoy  and  Dampierre, 
commanders  of  Walloon  regiments  and  pupils  of  the  Spanish 
Spinola.  Count  Charles  Longueval  de  Boucquoy,  a  native  of 
Hainault,  was  called  by  his  contemporaries  the  Netherlandish 
Hercules.  Having  been  employed  at  the  Archduke  Albert's 
court  in  Brussels,  he  entered  the  service  of  the  Emperor 
Matthias  in  1614,  and  was,  according  to  Khevenhüller, 
looked  upon  by  the  Bohemians  with  great  jealousy.  His 
second  in  command  was  Count  Henry  Duval  de  Dampierre, 
the  same  who  arrested  Clesel.  Ferdinand  sent  for  troops 
from  the  Netherlands,  Spain,  and  Italy.  The  times  of 
Charles  V.  came  back  again,  when  foreign  soldiers  were 
employed  to  crush  the  religious  liberty  of  Germany. 


252  FERDINAND     II. 


CHAPTER    VII. 

Ferdinand   IL — (1619-1637). 

/. — Personal  notices  of  the  Emperor — The  three  steins  (stones),  the 
three  bergs  (mounts),  and  the  dorf  (thorp. )^ 

No  Austrian  ruler  has  entered  upon  the  government  of 
the  hereditary  possessions  of  his  house  under  greater  diffi- 
culties than  did  Ferdinand  II.  Whereas  Charles  V.  on  his 
birth  found  a  world  full  of  happiness  and  magnificence  open 
before  him,  the  career  of  Ferdinand  II.  lay  through  a  world 
full  of  misery  and  danger.  And  yet  he  raised  once  more,  and 
for  the  last  time,  the  crown  of  the  Caesars  to  be  the  most 
dreaded  in  the  world. 

Ferdinand  was  born  at  Grätz  in  1578.  His  father  was 
Charles,  the  youngest  son  of  the  Emperor  Ferdinand  I.  and 
founder  of  the  Styrian  line  ;  a  Tyrolese  offshoot  of  which 
became  extinct  in  1665,  whilst  the  main  branch  survived  in 
the  male  line  until  1740,  and  through  the  descendants  of 
Maria  Theresa,  to  the  present  day.  Ferdinand's  mother  was 
Maria,  daughter  of  the  magnificent  Duke  Albert  V.  of 
Bavaria.  There  had  been  some  negotiations  on  the  subject 
of  a  marriage  between  his  father  and  Queen  Elizabeth  of 
England ;  but  Ferdinand  I.  would  not  allow  his  son  to  go  to 
London,  on  which  the  Queen  insisted  as  the  prime  condition 
of  the  possible,  although  not  very  probable,  success  of  the 
affair.  Her  deeply  rooted  aversion  to  matrimony  she  ex- 
pressed on  that  occasion  in  very  strong  terms  to  the  envoy 
of  Duke  Christopher  of  Würtemberg,  Ahasuerus  Alinga, 
whom  his  master  had  sent  (in  1564)  to  London  to  bring  about 

1  This  will  be  explained  in  the  context. 


HIS     EDUCATION     AND     FIRST     MARRIAGE  253 

"  that  marriage  so  desirable  for  an  auspicious  union  of  the ' 
two  Churches."     The  very  interesting  conversations  between 
EHzabeth  and  the  envoy  are  given  in  the  fourth  volume  of 
Spittler's  "  Historical  Magazine,"  and  are  also  reprinted  in 
one  of  Hormayr's  last  annuals. 

Ferdinand's  first  education  was  superintended  by  Catherine 
Countess  Montfort,  of  the  family  of  the  Augsburg  Fuggers, 
who  had  been  mistress  of  the  robes  to  his  mother.  His  chief 
governor  was  Jacob  Baron  von  Attems,  "an  experienced, 
godly,  and  fine  cavalier,"  as  Khevenhüller  calls  him.  The 
family  of  Attems  was  of  common  origin  compared  with  that  of 
the  Montforts.  He  was  succeeded  in  this  office  by  Balthazar 
Baron  Schrattenbach,  a  Styrian.  In  1590,  at  the  age  of 
twelve,  Ferdinand  entered  the  Jesuit  university  of  Ingolstadt ; 
in  the  same  year  he  lost  his  father.  At  the  age  of  seventeen 
he  undertook  the  government  of  Styria;  in  1598  he  began  to 
organise  the  movement  of  the  counter-reformation,  which  he 
carried  out  with  the  most  persevering  tenacity.  In  1600  he 
married  Maria,  daughter  of  the  zealous  Papist  Duke  William 
of  Bavaria,  the  founder  of  the  Jesuit  college  at  Munich. 

Ferdinand,  on  his  accession  in  1619,  had  already  com- 
pleted his  forty-second  year.  He  was  corpulent,  of  low 
stature,  but  of  a  strong  and  excellent  constitution.  He  was 
very  temperate  both  in  eating  and  drinking,  and  regularly 
went  to  bed  at  ten  and  rose  at  four.  The  prominent 
characteristic  of  his  disposition  was  his  devotion  to  the 
Roman  Church,  in  whose  most  uncompromising  spirit  he 
had  been  nurtured  from  his  early  youth. 

What  Philip  II.  had  been  for  Spain,  Ferdinand  II.  wished 
to  be  for  Germany.  "Better  a  desert  than  a  country  full  of 
heretics,''  he  once  said  to  Clesel,  and  the  maxim  remained 
his  motto  for  life.  He  was  the  most  faithful  disciple  of  the 
Church  of  Rome,  whose  priests,  especially  the  aristocratic 
Spaniards  among  them,  were  for  him  the  mouthpiece  of  God. 
His  own  confessor,  with  due  praise,  states  of  him  that  Fer- 
dinand had  feared  no  one  so  much  as  he  did  the  priests, 
whom  he  looked  upon  and  venerated  as  something  altogether 
superhuman.     He  is  reported  to  have  once  said,  in  as  many 


254  FERDINAND     II. 

words,  that  if  he  met  a  priest  and  an  angel  at  the  same  time, 
he  would  render  honour  to  the  priest  first.  This,  however, 
only  applied  to  the  highly  bred  Spanish  priests,  who  were 
ever  ready  to  rage  with  fire  and  sword  against  the  heretics ; 
whereas,  on  the  other  hand,  with  all  his  Catholic  zeal,  he 
scrupled  not  to  trample  underfoot  another  more  tolerant  low- 
born priest,  although  that  priest  was  a  cardinal.  It  was  to 
Ferdinand,  and  to  him  alone,  that  Clesel  owed  his  downfall. 
From  the  terrible  vow  which  Ferdinand,  egged  on  by  the 
reverend  fathers  his  instructors,  made  in  his  youth  to  the 
Virgin  of  Loretto,  he  never  swerved  in  the  whole  course  of 
his  life. 

Ferdinand  heard  every  day  two  masses  in  the  imperial 
chapel,  and  on  Sunday,  besides  a  mass  in  church,  a  German 
and  an  Italian  sermon,  and  vespers  in  the  afternoon.  He  never 
missed  kneeling  before  the  crucifix  at  matins  in  Advent,  and 
at  vespers  in  Lent.  He  regularly,  before  and  after  Easter, 
attended  all  the  processions  and  pilgrimages  on  foot  and 
bareheaded.  He  would  frequently  take  his  meals  at  the 
monasteries  of  the  Jesuits,  Capuchins,  Dominicans,  and  Car- 
melites ;  often  also  he  would  minister  as  an  acolyte  at  mass, 
or  toll  the  bell  at  the  hermitage  of  Neustadt  for  vespers.  He 
was  the  first  to  found,  for  the  Church  service,  the  celebrated 
Vienna  chapel,  which  in  his  time  consisted  of  eighty  instru- 
mental musicians  and  singers.  From  him  dates  the  custom 
of  the  Emperors  publicly  joining  in  the  Corpus  Christi  pro- 
cession at  Vienna,  which  was  done  originally  to  prevent,  by 
the  imperial  presence,  the  fights  which  used  to  occur  on  that 
occasion  between  the  two  religious  parties.  And  ever  since 
1628  the  Emperors  on  that  day  have  joined  the  procession, 
taper  in  hand.  From  him  likewise  dates  the  procession  to 
Hernals,  the  estate  of  the  Jorgers,  ^*  where  the  Catholic  doctrine 
had  first  been  profaned  by  a  Lutheran  sermon^  In  1632  the 
Capuchin  convent  was  completed,  which  had  been  begun 
under  Matthias,  and  where  henceforth  the  Emperors  were  to 
be  buried;  his  second  wife,  Eleonora  of  Mantua,  having  built 
in  1627  the  Loretto  chapel  in  the  church  of  the  Augustines, 
in  which  the  hearts  of  the  Emperors  were  to  be  entombed. 


HIS     RELIGIOUS     FANATICISM  255 

In  1622  Ferdinand  received  the  Carmelites,  and  in  1626  the 
Barnabites ;  in  1630  the  barefooted  Augustines  came  to 
Vienna,  and  a  new  church  was  built  for  the  Dominicans; 
in  1633,  even  from  the  distant  Montserrat,  Benedictines,  the 
so-called  "  Black  Spaniards,"  were  sent  for. 

Ferdinand  was  a  thoroughly  monkish  ruler.  For  the 
Jesuits  he  built  a  magnificent  church  and  college,  the  church 
being  consecrated  in  1631.  The  Jesuits  ruled  him  with 
absolute  sway,  constantly  keeping  near  him,  and  never  letting 
him  out  of  their  sight.  "  A  couple  of  them,"  as  the  Saxon 
resident  wrote  as  early  as  October,  161 8,  before  Ferdinand's 
accession  to  the  imperial  throne,  "were  always  to  be  met 
with  in  his  antechamber ;  nay,  they  had  such  free  access  to 
him  as  to  be  admitted  even  at  midnight  to  his  bedside  as 
often  as  they  chose  to  send  in  their  names."  Fathers  William 
Lamormain^  and  John  Weingärtner  had  him  completely  in 
their  power,  and  led  him  just  as  their  order  wished. 

But  Ferdinand  was  strong  by  his  blind  obstinacy,  and  by 
the  very  narrow-mindedness  and  fanatical  impetuosity  of  his 
bigotry.  His  system — which  he  carried  out  with  the  most 
unbending  pertinacity  of  a  soul  emancipated  by  religious 
zealotry  from  every  scruple — was  to  bear  adversity  with  the 
patience  of  a  never-changing  hatred  against  his  heretical  foes, 
and,  whenever  fortune  favoured  him,  unmercifully  and  ruth- 
lessly to  let  them  feel  his  power.  Every  misfortune  which 
befell  Ferdinand — generally  owing  to  his  own  fault,  to  his 
want  of  truth  and  faith — was  in  this  system  set  down  as  a 
passing  chastisement  of  the  Lord,  whose  inscrutable  and 
irresistible  will  was  ever  to  be  submitted  to  in  humility  and 
obedience.  Ferdinand  was  the  implacable  enemy  of  the 
Protestants  in  Bohemia  and  Germany.  The  revenge  on 
them  being  the  task  which  he  set  to  himself  through  life,  he 
only  abided  the  first  glimmer  of  success  and  prosperity  to  try 
and  annihilate  the  enemy,  who,  as  the  imperial  disciple  of  the 
Jesuits  conceived,  was  also  the  enemy  of  God.     Ferdinand, 

1  William  Lamormain,  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  was  a  native  of 
Luxemburg.  He  died  at  Vienna  on  the  22nd  of  February,  1648.  He  was 
said  to  have  made  upwards  of  100,000  converts  to  the  Roman  Church. 


256  FERDINAND     11. 

in  his  petrified  religious  conviction,  said  once,  in  imitation  of 
Luther,  to  Ehrenreich  von  Saurau,  the  speaker  of  the  Pro- 
testant Assembly  of  Estates,  *'  If  my  work  is  not  of  God,  I 
shall  not  accomplish  it.  I  will  stake  on  it  all  earthly  greatness, 
and  life  itself." 

The  rulers  of  the  first  Habsburg  dynasty,  from  Maxi- 
milian I.  down  to  Matthias — not  even  excepting  Maximilian  II., 
the  best  of  the  old  line — had  every  one  of  them  been  given  to 
all  the  excesses  of  illegitimate  amours.  The  new  Styrian 
dynasty  began  differently  ;  debauchery  having  debilitated  the 
stock,  its  usual  consequence,  devoteeism,  made  itself  manifest 
in  Ferdinand  II. 

Ferdinand  was  surrounded  exclusively  with  ecclesiastics 
and  women ;  the  latter,  however,  belonging  all  to  his  own 
family.  The  allurements  of  gallantry  were  no  temptation  to 
him  ;  he  entirely  lived  for  his  own  family  and  for  his  priests, 
who  held  sole  possession  of  his  ear  and  his  heart.  His 
mother  and  his  wife,  the  two  Marias  of  Bavaria,  both  of 
them  most  virtuous  matrons  and  excellent  mothers,  were 
likewise  only  blind  tools  in  the  hands  of  the  Jesuits. 

Ferdinand,  the  imperial  devotee,  was  engaged  in  war 
during  the  whole  of  the  eighteen  years  of  his  reign.  At  first, 
it  was  forced  upon  him  by  the  necessity  of  making  head 
against  his  nobility — that  Protestant  "  chain  of  nobles  " — 
who  were  exasperated  against  him,  not  by  mere  religious,  but 
much  more  strongly  by  political  reasons.  At  a  later  period, 
after  the  battle  of  the  White  Mountain,  and  when  Wallen- 
stein  and  Tilly  had  crushed,  with  arms  in  hand,  the  sym- 
pathies which  Germany  had  shown  for  the  cause  of  the 
Austrians  and  Bohemians,  that  necessity  existed  no  longer ; 
but  the  second,  the  Papist  "  chain  of  nobles,"  pushed  Fer- 
dinand on,  and  he  forbore  making  a  fair  peace  with  the 
conquered  party. 

Yet,  although  the  whole  of  Ferdinand's  reign  was  re- 
sounding with  the  clank  of  arms,  he  in  his  own  person  was 
anything  but  a  warrior.  Once  only,  in  the  Turkish  war  of 
1600,  he  had  allowed  himself  to  be  persuaded  to  present  him- 
self before  the  army  in  the  camp  near  Kanischa  in  Hungary. 


DEFICIENT    IN    WARLIKE     COURAGE  257 

On  that  occasion,  Ferdinand,  a  young  man  of  not  more  than 
twenty-two,  made  his  will  before  setting  out  in  stately  attire 
from  Grätz  to  take  the  field.  But  a  band  of  plundering 
Spahis,  and  the  dust  of  a  herd  of  bullocks  and  swine  driven 
towards  the  camp,  having  spread  a  sudden  panic,  Ferdinand 
with  the  whole  of  his  army  ingloriously  ran  away ;  and  it  was 
not  until  he  had  crossed  the  river  Mur  into  his  own  country 
of  Styria  that  Adam  Trautmannsdorf  succeeded  in  stopping 
his  flight.  Since  then  Ferdinand  contented  himself  with 
the  trophies  of  the  chase — which,  besides  music  and  religious 
exercises,  formed  his  principal  occupation — and  with  the 
deliberations  and  plots  of  the  peaceful  cabinet.  It  cannot 
be  denied  that  Ferdinand,  after  his  own  fashion  and  in  his 
own  way  of  thinking,  not  only  was  a  sagacious  and  clever 
sovereign,  but  that  he  also  understood  how  to  gather  round 
him  a  circle  of  able  and  intelligent  councillors. 

Ferdinand  spoke  Latin  and  Italian  very  fluently.  All  the 
transactions  of  the  high  diplomacy  were  at  that  time  still 
carried  on  in  Latin,  which  was  also  the  official  language 
of  the  Hungarians.  The  Italian,  French,  and  Spanish  am- 
bassadors at  court  were  addressed  in  Italian.  It  was  even 
used  at  the  reception  of  the  Turkish  ambassadors,  to  whom 
an  interpreter  translated  from  it.  Ferdinand  did  not  speak 
either  French  or  Spanish.  His  son  Ferdinand  III.,  however, 
was  conversant  with  the  latter  language ;  he  addressed  the 
Infanta,  when  he  went  to  meet  her  at  Sömmering  in  1631, 
in  her  own  mother-tongue. 

Of  the  councillors  of  Ferdinand  there  are  to  be  men- 
tioned in  the  foremost  rank  his  six  favourites,  the  "  three 
noble  (precious)  stones "  (steine),  and  the  "  three  high 
mounts"  (berge).  The  three  "steins"  were  the  Bohemian 
Wallenstein,  and  the  two  Moravians,  Liechtenstein  and 
Dietrichstein ;  the  three  "  bergs,"  Eggenberg,  a  Styrian,  and 
the  parvenus  Questenberg  and  Werdenberg,  the  former  a 
Bohemian  and  the  latter  an  Italian.  Leichtenstein,  Dietrich- 
stein,  Wallenstein,  and  Eggenberg  were  raised  by  Ferdinand 
to  the  rank  of  princes  of  the  Empire. 

Charles  von  Liechtenstein,  formerly  lord  chamberlain  and 
VOL.  I  17 


258  FERDINAND     II. 

privy  councillor  to  the  Emperor  Rodolph  II.,  was  first  raised 
by  the  Emperor  Matthias  when  still  King  of  Hungary,  in 
1608,  to  the  rank  of  prince  ;  in  that  country,  in  1612,  he  was 
invested  with  the  Silesian  duchy  of  Troppau;  in  1621,  Ferdi- 
nand raised  him  to  the  rank  of  a  prince  of  the  Empire,  and 
bestowed  upon  him  in  1623  the  Silesian  duchy  of  Jägerndorf, 
confiscated  from  the  Margrave  of  Brandenburg.  Both  those 
duchies  are  still  in  the  possession  of  the  family.  Charles,  the 
first  prince,  the  Papist  son  of  an  ultra-zealous  Protestant 
father,  died  in  1627  at  Prague  as  one  of  the  most  strenuous 
patrons  of  the  Jesuits. 

The  Eggenbergs  were  originally  bankers  like  the  Medicis, 
the  Fuggers,  and  our  own  Rothschilds.  Ulric  and  Balthazar 
Eggenberg  were  masters  of  the  mint  under  the  Emperor 
Frederic  III.,  and  used  to  negotiate  his  loans  for  him.  But 
when  Balthazar,  after  many  unpaid  old  loans,  refused  further 
credit,  Frederic  sent  him  in  chains  to  the  keep  of  the  castle  of 
Grätz,  and  there  extorted  a  new  loan  from  him,  for  the  easier 
repayment  of  which  Eggenberg  disappeared  in  his  dungeon  in 
1493,  and  was  never  heard  of  again.  One  century  later  (in 
1598)  the  family  was  ennobled  by  Rodolph  II. 

Hans  Ulric  Eggenberg,  the  minister  of  Ferdinand  II., 
was  born  in  1568.  He  had  been  in  Ferdinand's  service  ever 
since  1597,  rising  from  one  office  to  the  other,  until,  in  1619, 
we  find  him  accompanying  his  master  to  his  election  as 
Emperor  at  Frankfort.  In  the  same  year  he  received  the 
Golden  Fleece;  and  in  1621  he  became  director  of  the 
imperial  privy  council.  It  was  he  who  in  the  following  year 
fetched  home  Ferdinand's  second  wife,  Eleonora  Gonzaga  of 
Mantua ;  acting  as  the  Emperor's  proxy  at  the  marriage 
ceremony.  A  grant  of  Ferdinand,  dated  6th  of  December, 
1622,  bestowed  upon  him  the  vast  lordship  of  Krummau  in 
Southern  Bohemia,  which,  comprehending  at  that  time  no 
less  than  311  towns  and  villages,  was,  in  1628,  raised  into  a 
duchy,  Eggenberg  having  been  made  a  prince  of  the  Empire 
by  diploma,  dated  from  Ratisbon,  of  the  31st  of  August,  1623. 

As  Wallenstein  was  all-powerful  in  the  army,  so  was 
Eggenberg  in  the  cabinet.     The  prince  being  nearly  always 


HIS    COUNCILLORS  259 

confined  to  his  bed  by  the  gout  and  by  disorders  of  the 
stomach,  Ferdinand  generally  caused  the  privy  council  to 
be  assembled  at  his  favourite's  house;  to  which,  although 
situated  at  some  distance,  a  secret  passage  led  from  the 
Hofburg. 

Eggenberg's  downfall  happened  in  the  same  year  as  that 
of  Wallenstein,  whom  he  survived  by  only  eight  months, 
dying,  at  the  age  of  sixty-six,  at  Laibach,  i8th  of  October, 
1634.  -f^^s  family  grew  extinct  in  171 7,  when  the  duchy  of 
Krummau  passed  to  the  Schwarzenbergs,  forming  the  nucleus 
of  the  enormous  landed  property  of  that  princely  house. 

The  third  favourite  of  Ferdinand,  who  rose  highest  to  fall 
deepest  of  all,  was  the  celebrated  Wallenstein.  He  was  raised 
to  the  rank  of  prince  about  the  same  time  as  his  friend 
Eggenberg,  by  diploma,  dated  from  Ratisbon,  on  the  7th  of 
September,   1623. 

The  fourth  of  the  favourites  raised  to  the  princely  dignity 
was  Francis  von  Dietrichstein,  cardinal  bishop  of  Olmiitz, 
whose  diploma  is  dated  from  Vienna  on  the  15th  of  February, 
1624.  He  maintained  himself  in  Ferdinand's  favour  and 
amassed  vast  landed  property  in  Moravia  and  Bohemia, 
which,  with  the  princely  coronet,  passed  at  his  death,  in 
1636,  to  his  nephew  Maximilian,  from  whom  the  present 
family  are  descended. 

The  two  other  confidential  advisers  of  Ferdinand  had 
risen  from  the  rank  of  clerks  in  the  government  offices,  the 
one  to  that  of  baron,  the  other  to  that  of  count.  Baron 
Gerard  von  Questenberg  was  the  Emperor's  factotum  in 
the  Aulic  war  office ;  Count  John  Baptist  Werdenberg  held 
the  office  of  Aulic  Chancellor  of  Austria.  Both  being  friends 
of  Wallenstein,  were  sent  to  him  at  Memmingen  with  the 
delicate  commission  of  inducing  him  to  lay  down  his  com- 
mand.    Their  families  have  long  been  extinct. 

Besides  the  three  "  bergs  "  and  the  three  "  steins"  we  have 
to  mention  a  "dorf"  (thorp) — the  honest  Maximilian  von 
Trautmannsdorf,  who  stood  highest  in  Ferdinand's  favour 
after  Eggenberg. 

Maximilian   von  Trautmannsdorf,   the    celebrated   diplo- 

17 — 2 


26o  FERDINAND     II. 

matist  of  the  peace  of  Westphalia,  was,  hke  Eggenberg,  a 
Styrian,  but  from  an  old  and  distinguished  family.  As  early 
as  in  the  battle  of  the  Marchfield  against  Ottocar  of  Bohemia, 
fourteen  Trautmannsdorfs,  and  at  Mühldorf,  against  the 
Emperor  Louis  of  Bavaria,  twenty  of  them,  had  fought  and 
died  for  the  house  of  Habsburg,  Maximilian  Trautmanns- 
dorf  first  entered  his  public  career  under  Rodolph  II.,  in  the 
the  Imperial  Aulic  Council,  the  nursery  of  Austria's  diploma- 
tists ;  afterwards  he  was  lord  chamberlain  to  the  empress  of 
Matthias,  and  still  under  the  reign  of  this  Emperor  a  privy 
councillor.  Ferdinand  II.  entrusted  him  with  the  most  im- 
portant diplomatic  missions  during  the  course  of  the  Thirty 
Years'  War.  He  was  raised  to  the  dignity  of  count  in  1623 ; 
in  1635,  he  concluded  the  peace  of  Prague  ;  and  rose  to  be 
prime  minister  under  Ferdinand  III.,  in  the  account  of  whose 
reign  we  shall  have  occasion  to  say  more  of  him. 

2. — Count  Timm  before  Vienna — ^^ Handy"  Thonvadl,  and  Dani- 
pierre's  cuirassiers  in  the  Hoßtirg — Election  of  Ferdinand  as 
Emperor  of  the  Romans,  and  of  the  Elector  Palatine  Frederic 
as  King  of  Bohemia. 

Bohemia  after  the  "  Defenestratio  Pragensis"  was  as  good 
as  lost  to  Ferdinand.  Boucquoy  and  Dampierre,  the  generals 
who  marched  against  Prague,  were  defeated  by  the  malcon- 
tents. Pilsen,  the  first  town  after  Prague  which  remained  loyal, 
was,  as  early  as  the  21st  of  November,  161 8,  taken  by  the 
bastard  Count  Ernest  of  Mansfeld,  who  brought  to  the  Bohe- 
mians a  succour  of  4,000  men.  In  December,  Count  Matthias 
Thurn,  the  head  of  the  Bohemian  malcontents,  stood  before 
Vienna.  The  Emperor  Matthias  was  then  still  living.  Zeidler, 
the  resident  minister  of  the  Elector  of  Saxony  at  Vienna, 
reported  about  this  time  to  his  court  that  the  Emperor  had 
said :  "  I  understand  that  my  Bohemians  now  even  walk  into 
my  country;"  to  which  Ferdinand  had  replied:  "They  are 
getting  rather  too  near  us."  Matthias  perhaps  was  not  at  all 
sorry  in  his  heart  that  the  man  who  harassed  him  was  now 
harassed  in  his  turn. 


COUNT    THURN     BEFORE     VIENNA  261 

The  feeling  at  Vienna  and  throughout  Austria,  where  by 
far  the  greater  number  of  the  people  then  professed  the  Pro- 
testant religion,  was  favourable  to  the  Bohemians.  Neverthe- 
less, Thurn,  without  attacking  the  capital,  marched  off  to 
Moravia.  Here  all  the  people  declared  for  him.  After  having 
concluded  at  Brunn  his  union  with  the  Moravian  Estates,  and 
thereby  secured  his  retreat,  he  again  appeared  before  Vienna 
in  the  spring  of  1619.  Both  times  he  had  advanced,  scarcely 
meeting  with  any  resistance,  into  the  very  heart  of  Austria. 
When  being  asked  what  he  was  coming  for,  he  answered, 
"Wherever  he  met  with  any  enrolled  troops  he  disbanded 
them.  There  must  in  future  be  equality  between  Papists  and 
Protestants ;  the  Papists  must  not,  as  they  had  done  until 
then,  float  on  the  top  like  a  drop  of  oil  on  water."  Whilst 
Thurn  was  for  the  second  time  standing  before  Vienna,  the 
Emperor  Matthias  died,  on  the  20th  of  March,  i6ig. 

Ferdinand  II.  stayed  in  the  Hofburg  at  Vienna.  He  was 
without  soldiers  and  without  money.  His  councillors  urged 
him  to  go  to  the  Tyrol,  where  he  would  be  nearer  Bavaria. 
Even  the  Jesuits  advised  him  to  yield,  or  at  least  to  temporise 
— "  he  who  gained  time  gained  life."  But  Ferdinand  remained 
in  Vienna  and  did  not  yield ;  on  the  contrary,  he  more  signally 
than  ever  displayed  all  the  peculiar  tenacity  of  his  inmost 
nature.  His  situation  was  terrible  :  the  question  was  already 
mooted  whether  he  ought  not  to  be  shut  up  in  a  monastery 
after  the  example  of  the  Merovingian  and  Carolingian  em- 
perors, so  that  his  children  might  be  brought  up  in  the  religion 
of  the  country — the  Protestant  faith. 

The  Archduke  Leopold  of  Tyrol,  brother  of  Ferdinand  II., 
was  governor  of  Vienna.  By  way  of  precaution,  and  because 
a  secret  understanding  between  the  citizens  of  Vienna  and 
Count  Thurn  was  apprehended,  the  archduke  ordered  all  the 
townspeople  to  deliver  up  their  arms. 

The  headquarters  of  Count  Thurn  were  close  before  the 
city,  in  the  suburb  near  the  gate  called  Stubenthor,  which 
opens  on  the  road  to  Hungary ;  his  cavalry  was  at  Ebersdorf, 
his  infantry  at  Herrnals.  The  Bohemian  soldiers  of  the 
regiment  of  Tiefenbach,  which  at  that  time  was  commanded 


202  FERDINAND     II. 

by  Thurn,  were  to  take  the  "  New  Gate "  (Neuthor) ;  a 
petard  was  fixed  to  it,  but  the  plan  of  the  surprise  was 
betrayed.  Thurn's  batteries,  pitched  near  the  parish  church 
of  St.  Ulric,  poured  their  shot  into  the  windows  of  the  im- 
perial residence,  the  Hofburg.  It  was  the  terrible  night  of 
the  6th  of  June,  i6ig.  Ferdinand  was  obliged  to  retire  from 
his  own  apartments.  He  prayed  against  his  enemies.  In  the 
imperial  Schatzkammer  (museum  of  curiosities)  at  Vienna 
the  crucifix  is  still  preserved  before  which  he  was  kneeling 
when,  as  he  asserted,  he  heard  the  words  called  out  to  him, 
"  Ferdinande  non  ie  deseram."  This  passive  tenacity  and  sub- 
mission to  an  inevitable  fate  was  what  Ferdinand  conceived 
to  be  trusting  in  God's  providence. 

That  terrible  night  was  soon  followed  by  a  terrible  day — 
the  nth  of  June.  Sixteen  members  of  the  Austrian  Estates 
appeared  before  him  in  the  desolate  Hofburg.^  Their  leader 
was  Andrew  Thonradl,  Lord  of  Ebergassing.  They  brought 
with  them  a  document  containing  the  articles  of  a  union  of 
the  Austrian  Estates  with  the  Bohemians,  to  which  Ferdinand 
was  required  to  give  his  assent.  Ferdinand  refused  to  sign 
the  paper.  Then  Andrew  Thonradl,  seizing  him  by  the 
buttons  of  his  doublet,  called  out  to  him,  "  Nandel  [diminu- 
tive of  Ferdinand],  give  in,  thou  must  sign." 

In  this  critical  moment  there  happened  one  of  those  for- 
tunate and  almost  miraculously  opportune  incidents,  of  which 
several  examples  are  to  be  found  in  the  history  of  Austria. 
Trumpets  resounded  in  the  courtyard.  They  announced  the 
arrival  of  500  Dampierre  cuirassiers,  whom  Boucquoy  had 
sent  down  the  Danube  from  Krems  to  Vienna,  and  who, 
having  just  now  entered  the  city  by  the  unguarded  *'  Water- 
gate," were  making  their  appearance  at  the  Hofburg.  These 
cuirassiers  saved  Ferdinand.  Fear  and  their  own  evil  con- 
science drove  the  craven  Protestant  lords  from  the  Hofburg 
and  from  Vienna,  to  seek  refuge  in  the  Bohemian  camp.  On 
this  the  Papist  citizens  took  courage   again,  and,  together 

1  The  noble  names  of  Tschernembl,  Hager,  Jörger,  Polheim,  and 
others  are  mentioned. 


I 


THURN'S    third    attack    on     VIENNA  263 

with  the  students  of  the  university,  armed  themselves  for 
Ferdinand. 

In  Bohemia  the  fortune  of  v^rar  had  in  the  meanwhile 
veered  round  a  little.  Boucquoy,  having  re-entered  that 
kingdom  from  Krems,  and  at  last  defeated  Mansfeld  near 
Budweis,  threatened  Prague  again.  This  induced  Thurn  to 
raise  the  siege  of  Vienna  on  the  12th  of  June,  1619. 

Thurn  had  twice  lost  the  opportunity  of  taking  the 
Austrian  capital  by  a  sudden  attack,  and  thereby  speedily 
putting  an  end  to  the  war.  It  was  just  as  it  had  happened 
in  the  case  of  the  League  at  Smalcalde  and  the  Emperor 
Charles  V.;  the  passive  tenacity  of  the  imperial  family  of 
Austria  got  the  better  of  the  sluggish,  unwieldy,  irresolute 
action  of  the  malcontents.  But  no  Elector  Maurice  now 
came  to  the  rescue. 

Thurn,  however,  appeared  before  Vienna  a  third  time, 
having  allied  himself  (2nd  of  November,  1619)  with  the  great 
Prince  Bethlen  Gabor  of  Transylvania,  who  had  taken  pos- 
session of  the  Hungarian  capital  and  of  the  sacred  crown 
of  St.  Stephen.  But  the  two  allies  mistrusted  one  another. 
Bethlen  Gabor  was  not  inaccessible  to  the  bait  held  out  to 
him  by  Austria,  of  a  match  with  the  Princess  Maria  Anna, 
Ferdinand's  daughter,  at  that  time  in  her  eleventh  year ; 
who  at  a  much  later  period  (in  1635)  was  married  to  the 
old  Elector  Maximilian  of  Bavaria.  Bethlen  Gabor  con- 
cluded a  truce,  and  Thurn,  after  disposing  his  army  in  winter 
quarters,  went  to  Prague  to  enjoy  the  gaieties  of  the  carnival. 

During  the  time  intervening  between  Thurn's  second  hasty 
departure  from  before  Vienna  and  his  third  campaign  in  con- 
junction with  Bethlen  Gabor,  Ferdinand  determined  upon  a 
bold  and  most  resolute  step.  He  went  in  all  haste  by  Munich 
to  Frankfort,  to  be  elected  Emperor  of  the  Romans.  He 
entered  Frankfort,  in  his  travelling  carriage,'  on  the  28th  of 
July,  1619,  just  as  a  mutiny  of  a  troop  of  horse  was  at  its 
height ;  and  four  weeks  after  he  was  Emperor.  It  was  not  a 
little  remarkable  that  all  the  six  Electors,  even  the  Protestant 
ones — not  excepting  the  Elector  Palatine — gave  him  their 
votes. 


264  FERDINAND     II. 

But,  whilst  Ferdinand  was  elected  at  Frankfort,  he  was 
deposed  at  Prague.  The  Bohemians,  although  they  had 
elected  and  crowned  Ferdinand  in  161 7,  now  ousted  him  "  as 
the  arch-enemy  of  the  liberty  of  conscience,  and  as  a  slave  of 
Spain  and  of  the  Jesuits ; "  he  was  charged  with  having 
obtained  the  Bohemian  crown  by  fraudulent  means,  and  with 
having  betrayed  the  country  to  Spain  by  secret  treaties.  The 
Bohemian  aristocracy  were  certainly  never  very  sparing  in 
their  recriminations  and  calumnies,  whereas  they  themselves 
revolved  the  most  grasping  and  adventurous  plans  in  their 
own  proud  hearts.  Khevenhüller  has  recorded  some  such 
examples  for  the  benefit  of  posterity.  In  May,  i6ig,  Prince 
Christian  of  Anhalt,  the  general  of  the  Evangelical  Union, 
was  sent  by  the  Bohemians  to  the  great  Duke  Emanuel  of 
Savoy  to  offer  to  him  the  crown  of  Bohemia,  and  even  the 
imperial  crown ;  and  from  thence  to  the  Signory  of  Venice. 
The  Nobili  advised  the  Bohemians  "  to  make  a  stout  defence, 
and,  if  it  could  not  be  done  otherwise,  to  govern  themselves 
in  forma  reipiihlica,  with  the  help  of  the  Dutch  and  of  Venice." 
The  Venetians  at  the  same  time  suggested  the  expedient  of 
conquering  the  wealthy  city  of  Genoa  (tJie  rival  of  Venice),  "to 
defray  the  expenses  of  the  war."  The  Prince  of  Anhalt, 
whose  papers  after  the  battle  of  the  White  Mountain  fell  into 
the  hands  of  Ferdinand,  had  spoken  of  his  Majesty  in  the 
following  terms :  "  Qu'il  seroit  mieux  de  prendre  plutost  tin  Turc, 
avoir  tm  diable  a  la  succession  de  Vempire,  que  de  la  laisser  venir  ati 
Ferdinand." 

But  the  Bohemian  aristocracy  had  no  wish  for  a  republic 
after  the  pattern  of  Holland  or  Venice.  All  that  they  wanted 
was  a  king ;  that  is  to  say,  a  king  of  their  own  making,  such 
as  the  Poles  had. 

And  now  the  event  happened  which  raised  the  exaspera- 
tion between  the  three  religious  parties  in  Germany  to  its 
highest  pitch — the  election  of  the  Calvinist  Elector  Palatine 
Frederic  as  King  of  Bohemia.  Papists  and  Lutherans, 
however  widely  they  might  differ  in  other  respects,  agreed 
most  cordially  in  their  intense  hatred  of  Calvinism ;  the 
Lutherans,  in  their  blind  fanatical  zeal,  were  fond  of  quoting 


THE     "PALATINAL"     KING     OF     BOHEMIA  265 

the  saying  of  the  bluff  old  Doctor  of  Wittenberg — that  the 
Calvinists  were  seven  times  worse  than  the  Papists. 

The  Elector  Palatine  Frederic  was  a  prince  of  not  more 
than  twenty-three ;  a  handsome  and  stately,  and,  as  is  proved 
by  his  own  letters,  jovial,  gallant,  and  magnificent  lord,  who 
through  all  his  life  evinced  a  remarkable  ease  of  mind  and 
temper.  His  education  had  been  a  French  one ;  he  had 
passed  his  youth  at  Sedan  at  the  house  of  one  of  his  kinsmen, 
the  great  Huguenot  chief,  Duke  of  Bouillon  ;  and  afterwards 
resided  with  his  maternal  uncle  Maurice  of  Orange,  the  son  of 
the  liberator  of  the  Netherlands.  At  the  death  of  his  father 
he  was  not  more  than  fourteen ;  and  he  was  married  before 
he  had  completed  his  seventeenth  year  to  the  Lady  Elizabeth, 
daughter  of  James  I.  of  England.  The  fable  convemie  of  this 
princess  having  induced  her  husband  to  accept  the  perilous 
Bohemian  crown  by  saying  to  him,  "  Rather  starve  under 
a  kingly  crown  than  revel  under  an  Elector's  cap,"  has  been 
effectually  refuted  by  the  letters  of  her  granddaughter,  the 
well-known  Duchess  of  Orleans  (mother  of  the  Regent). 
Elizabeth  had  not  the  slightest  inkling  of  the  election,  and  all 
her  thoughts  at  that  time  turned  only  upon  comedies,  ballets, 
and  novels.  The  principal  adviser  of  Frederic  in  this 
momentous  step  was  his  uncle,  the  Prince  of  Orange,  the 
arch-enemy  of  the  house  of  Habsburg,  especially  of  its 
Spanish  branch.  The  ambitious  and  very  influential  court 
preacher  of  the  Elector,  Scultetus,  may  likewise  have  done 
his  best  in  representing  to  Frederic  that,  in  accepting  the 
Bohemian  crown,  he  was  only  fulfilling  a  duty  of  religion 
which  he  owed  to  his  Calvinist  brethren. 

Frederic's  election  at  Prague  took  place  on  the  26th  of 
August,  1618,  two  days  before  that  of  Ferdinand  as  Emperor 
of  the  Romans.  Frederic,  on  being  informed  of  the 
deposition  of  Ferdinand  by  the  Bohemians,  exclaimed,  "  I 
should  never  have  thought  that  this  would  come  to  pass. 
Heavens  1  if  the  Bohemians  elected  me,  what  should  I  do  ?  " 
He  was  at  that  time  at  Amberg  in  the  Upper  Palatinate, 
which  is  contiguous  to  Bohemia.  There  he  received  the  news 
of  his  own  election  on  the  very  day  on  which  Ferdinand  was 


266  FERDINAND    II. 

elected  at  Frankfort.  Frederic,  surprised  and  confused,  was 
long  wavering  whether  he  should  accept  or  refuse  the  offer. 
Only  when  the  Bohemians  sent  the  third  letter,  in  which  they 
pressed  for  a  categorical  answer,  he  accepted  the  crown, 
which  he  knew  very  well  how  to  wear  with  great  stateliness, 
but  not  to  maintain  with  honour.  He  said,  in  the  canting 
style  then  in  vogue,  which  Scultetus  was  most  anxious 
to  keep  up  at  his  court,  "  that  he  considered  it  an  especial 
dispensation  of  the  Almighty,  and  that  therefore  he  would 
accept  it." 

Frederic  had  delayed  so  long  that  it  was  October  before 
he  set  out  for  Bohemia.  Seeing  him  depart,  his  mother,  the 
clever  Princess  Juliana,  of  the  House  of  Orange,  said,  with 
gloomy  foreboding :  "  Alas !  here  goes  the  Palatinate  to 
Bohemia  !  "  But  the  easy  king-elect  was  in  high  spirits.  He 
relied  on  his  uncle  the  Prince  of  Orange ;  on  his  father-in-law 
James  I.  of  England ;  on  the  assistance  promised  by  the 
Austrians ;  on  the  German  cities  which  had  engaged  to 
supply  him  with  money ;  on  the  Huguenots  in  France ;  on 
the  Orisons,  who  had  pledged  themselves  to  stop  the 
Spaniards  on  their  march  if  they  should  advance  by  Switzer- 
land from  Milan  and  Naples ;  but  most  of  all  he  relied,  with 
his  light  youthful  heart,  on  the  chapter  of  accidents. 

On  the  31st  of  October,  1619,  Frederic  made  his  entrance 
into  the  ancient  city  of  Prague  with  its  hundred  towers  and 
steeples,  which  were  so  soon  again  to  be  surmounted  by  the 
double-barred  papal  cross.  He  was  on  horseback,  splendidly 
attired,  riding  on  a  magnificent  charger;  the  Electress  followed 
in  a  gorgeous  carriage  with  her  eldest  son,  escorted  by  Prince 
Christian  of  Anhalt  and  his  son,  attended  by  Duke  Magnus 
of  Würtemberg,  and  by  the  Silesian  Duke  of  Münsterberg 
and  the  other  noble  lieges  of  the  crown  of  Bohemia.  Before 
the  gate  a  band  of  400  Bohemians  was  drawn  up  wearing  old 
armour  from  the  times  of  Ziska,  and  on  their  standards  the 
chalice  ;  and,  as  a  contemporary  account  relates,  "  when  the 
Elector  passed,  they  made  such  a  noise  and  clatter  with  their 
Bohemian  ear-picks  (iron  clubs),  that  he  could  not  help 
laughing." 


"EVANGELICAL     UNION"    AND     "CATHOLIC    LEAGUE"       267 

Four  days  after  his  entrance,  Frederic  and  his  English 
princess  were  crowned  at  Prague  as  King  and  Queen  of 
Bohemia,  4th  of  November,  161 9. 

3. — Frederic's  hopeless  situation  at  Prague — The  Bohemian 
aristocracy,  and  Calvinist  outrages. 

The  new  "  Palatinal  King  "  of  Bohemia,  as  the  Papists 
called  him,  was  a  lost  man  even  before  the  battle  of  the 
White  Mountain  near  Prague  snatched  the  crown  from  his 
head.  He  was  deserted  and  betrayed  on  all  sides,  even  by 
his  master  of  the  mint,  a  partisan  of  Austria,  who  in  coining 
the  dollars  of  the  new  King  had  the  D.  of  the  D.  G.  in  the 
legend  reversed,  which  was  considered  as  a  very  ominous  sign 
that  Frederic  was  not  king  by  the  "  grace  of  God." 

Frederic  was  the  head  of  the  "  Evangelical  Union  "  con- 
cluded in  1608  at  the  convent  of  Ahausen  near  the  Odenwald 
— at  that  time  belonging  to  Anspach — by  the  following  Pro- 
testant princes  :  The  Elector  Palatine,  the  Duke  of  Palatine 
Neuburg,  the  Princes  of  Brandenburg- Anspach  and  Baireuth, 
the  Duke  of  Würtemberg,  and  the  Princes  of  Baden-Durlach 
and  of  Anhalt.  In  1609  they  were  joined  by  the  Elector  of 
Brandenburg  and  by  the  Duke  of  Hesse-Cassel.  Against  this 
Evangelical  Union  the  *'  Catholic  League "  was  formed  at 
Würzburg,  in  1610,  by  the  following  Papist  potentates :  The 
Duke  of  Bavaria  ;  the  Bishops  of  Augsburg,  Strassburg,  Con- 
stance, Ratisbon,  and  Passau ;  the  Provost  of  Elwangen ; 
and  the  Abbot  of  Kempten.  The  three  spiritual  Electors  of 
Mayence,  Cologne,  and  Treves  joined  it  some  time  after.  The 
hfe  and  soul  of  this  Catholic  league  were  the  Duke  Maxi- 
milian of  Bavaria,  an  intimate  friend  of  the  Emperor's,  and 
Lothair  Metternich,  Elector  of  Treves,  one  of  the  greatest 
statesmen  among  the  spiritual  princes  whom  Germany  has 
ever  seen.  Maximilian,  Frederic's  cousin,  was  therefore  a 
most  determined  and  bitter  opponent  of  the  Elector  Palatine, 
and  that  not  only  from  political  and  religious  motives,  but 
also  for  the  very  reason  of  his  being  his  cousin,  to  whom  he 
grudged  more   than  to  any  other  prince  this  accession  of 


268  FERDINAND     II. 

honour  and  power.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Elector  of  Saxony, 
John  George,  the  head  of  the  Lutherans,  turned  round  upon 
the  new  King  on  account  of  his  belonging  to  the  much-hated 
body  of  the  Calvinists ;  and  thus  the  chiefs  both  of  the  Ultra- 
montane and  of  the  Lutheran  parties  worked  for  the  Emperor, 
whose  interest  was  not  a  little  furthered  by  these  splits  among 
the  princely  aristocracy  of  Germany. 

Frederic,  immediately  after  his  coronation,  had  hastened 
to  Nuremberg  to  consult  with  the  assembled  princes  of  the 
Evangelical  Union.  Thither  also  Ferdinand  sent  his  privy 
councillor  Count  Hans  George  of  Hohenzollern-Hechingen  to 
advocate  the  imperial  interest.  But  the  princes,  pleading  the 
clauses  of  the  Royal  Letter  (Majestäts-brief)  of  the  Emperor 
Rudolph  IL,  in  virtue  of  which  Bohemia  was  included  in  the 
religious  peace  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire,  "treated  the 
attack  on  the  Bohemians  as  an  infringement  of  the  privileges 
of  the  Protestants  as  guaranteed  by  the  constitution  of  the 
Empire,  and  declared  that  they  on  their  side  considered  them- 
selves justified  in  repelling  it  by  force." 

Yet  this  energetic  resolution  was  not  followed  by  energetic 
action.  The  upshot  was  that  the  members  of  the  Union 
entered  into  a  correspondence  with  Maximilian  of  Bavaria, 
the  head  of  the  Catholic  League,  and  that  many  months  were 
wasted  in  deliberations  and  negotiations.  Maximilian  having, 
in  the  beginning  of  the  year  1620,  received  the  Emperor's 
promise  of  the  electoral  palatinal  dignity,  took  the  field  with 
his  army  of  32,000  men,  very  good  troops,  and  encamped  near 
Dillingen  on  the  Danube.  The  army  of  the  Union  stood 
near  Ulm.  But,  although  the  two  hosts  were  thus  only  a 
few  days'  march  distant  from  one  another,  no  fighting  ensued. 
King  Louis  XHL  of  France,  son-in-law  of  Philip  HL  of 
Spain,  sent  envoys,  the  Duke  of  Angouleme  and  MM.  de 
Bethune  and  d'Aubespine,  both  to  the  Catholic  League  and 
to  the  Evangelical  Union,  in  order  to  bring  about  a  reconcilia- 
tion between  the  two  hostile  parties.  The  result  was  that  the 
Evangelical  Union  allowed  themselves  to  be  persuaded  by 
these  French  envoys  to  "  take  unto  itself  the  salntare,"  con- 
cluding at  Ulm  on  the  3rd  of  July,  1620,  a  peace  with  the 


THE     NEW     king's     HOPELESS    CONDITION  269 

"League"   and  disgracefully  leaving  the  "  Palatinal  King" 
to  his  fate. 

The  peace  of  Ulm  was  scarcely  concluded  when  enemies 
on  all  sides  began  to  attack  the  King  of  Bohemia.  Maxi- 
milian of  Bavaria  set  out  in  the  very  month  of  July  for 
Austria,  which  was  in  a  state  of  insurrection  against 
Ferdinand.  It  was  the  peasants  who  had  risen  again,  and 
who  even  had  slain  Duke  Ernst  Louis  of  Saxe-Lauenburg, 
merely  because,  as  he  was  hastening  down  the  Danube 
to  the  assistance  of  the  Emperor,  he  declared  that  they 
should  be  quite  merry ;  they  would  soon  have  other  guests. 
Maximilian  speedily  brought  the  peasants  and  the  whole 
country  to  submission ;  having  accompHshed  which,  and 
having,  on  the  8th  of  September,  joined  Count  Boucquoy, 
the  imperial  general,  near  Neupölla,  in  Lower  Austria,  he 
entered  Bohemia.  As  early  as  in  August  25,000  Spanish 
auxiliaries  set  out  from  the  Low  Countries,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Marchese  Ambrosio  Spinola  and  Don  Gonzalez 
Fernandez  de  Cordova.  After  passing  the  Rhine  near 
Coblenz,  they  overran  the  Rhenish  Palatinate,  Frederic's 
hereditary  country,  which  was  guaranteed  to  him  by  the 
Evangelical  Union,  and  the  innocent  Protestant  inhabitants 
had  cruelly  to  suffer  for  the  delinquency  of  their  absent  lord. 
In  addition  to  this,  the  Lutheran  Elector  of  Saxony,  Frederic's 
third  enemy,  allied  himself,  in  March,  with  the  two  spiritual 
Electors  of  Mayence  and  Cologne  against  the  Calvinist 
Elector  Palatine  and  for  the  Emperor,  and  invaded,  in 
September,  with  15,000  men,  Lusatia,  at  that  time  incor- 
porated with  Bohemia. 

King  James  I.  of  England,  Frederic's  own  father-in-law, 
turned  from  him  like  the  rest.  About  Christmas,  in  i6ig. 
Prince  Rupert,  who  afterwards  served  in  the  army  of 
Charles  I.  during  the  Civil  War,  was  born.  The  courier 
whom  Frederic  sent  to  his  father-in-law  to  announce  this 
birth  brought  back  some  promises  of  money  and  men.  But, 
as  James  at  that  time  was  negotiating  with  Spain  about  a 
marriage  between  the  Prince  of  Wales  and  a  Spanish  Infanta, 
his  own  interest  made  him  withdraw  his  help  from  Frederic, 


270 


FERDINAND     II. 


and  truckle  to  the  Emperor.  The  relations  between  James 
and  the  Bohemian  King  may  be  judged  from  the  following 
letters  of  Frederic  to  his  wife.  On  the  25th  of  February, 
1620,  he  writes  to  her  from  Breslau:  *' Le  roy  s'amuse 
toujours  ä  disputer  de  la  justice  de  la  cause,  et  semble  qu'il 
voudroit  bien  etre  quitte  du  Baron  Achatius,^  et  le  laisser 
retourner  ä  mains  vuides";  and  from  Rockesan,  shortly  before 
the  encounter  with  the  Elector  of  Bavaria  and  Tilly,  he 
writes  (dated  loth  of  October,  1620) :  "  Pour  les  ambassa- 
deurs  d'Angleterre  j'ay  fait  commander  qu'on  les  re9oive  le 
plus  honorablement  qu'on  pourra ;  mais  que  je  suis  nulle- 
ment  resolu  de  les  defrayer,  car  les  grandes  depenses  que  j'ay, 
m'en  peuvent  bien  excuser,  et  aussi  le  roy  ne  defraye  pas 
le  mien.  Je  m'etonne  s'ils  me  donncront  le  titre,  autrement  je 
leur  baise  les  mains  de  leur  lettres." 

But  Frederic's  worst  enemy  was  himself.  He  did  not 
understand  the  art  of  insinuating  himself  with  the  Bohemian 
aristocracy,  who  were  offended  by  his  bestowing  his  con- 
fidence exclusively  on  his  German  generals,  ministers,  and 
courtiers.  Nor  did  he  understand  how  to  make  himself 
respected,  and  the  Bohemian  lords  soon  got  the  better  of 
him.  These  aristocrats,  who,  in  speaking  of  their  enemies, 
used  to  style  the  Emperor  "  the  blind  cur,"  the  Elector 
Maximilian  "  the  Bavarian  hog,"  and  John  George  of  Saxony 
"the  perjured,  drunken  clod,"  had  but  one  thing  at  heart  in 
their  rebellion — the  maintenance  of  their  feudal  rights, 
liberties,  and  privileges.  They  wanted,  as  a  minister  of 
Frederic  expresses  it,  "  a  King,  as  it  were,  only  for  show, 
and  one  who  would  make  their  crooked  things  straight." 
This  went  so  far  that,  when  the  King  once  summoned  the 
Bohemian  lords  for  a  meeting  of  the  council  early  in  the 
morning,  some  of  the  principal  men  among  them  un- 
ceremoniously declared  that  they  could  not  make  their 
appearance  as  early  as  seven  in  the  morning ;  a  man  must 
have  his  rest  after  having  done  his  work,  and  the  thing  was 
contrary  to  their  privileges.  The  towns,  on  the  other  hand, 
as  the  same  minister  states,  were  to  be  oppressed  and  made 

*  Frederic's  envoy  in  London. 


BREAKING    OF    IMAGES  27I 

subservient  to  the  nobles ;  besides  which,  they  were  to  bear 
all  the  burdens.  As  to  the  officers  of  the  army,  Frederic  had 
neither  the  energy  nor  the  tact  for  keeping  them  in  their 
place ;  they  enriched  themselves,  whilst  their  King  remained 
poor.  About  the  latter  end  of  September,  1620,  the  arrears 
due  to  the  soldiery  amounted  to  no  less  than  four  millions  and 
a  half  of  florins.  The  men  therefore  plundered  and  robbed  to 
get  their  own,  which  caused  great  distress  and  many  bitter 
complaints  among  the  people.  It  was  of  no  avail  that 
Frederic  and  his  wife,  to  court  popularity,  showed  themselves 
exceedingly  affable  and  polite,  accompanying  noble  funerals 
on  foot,  and  dancing  at  the  balls  of  the  citizens ;  they  only 
lost  respect  by  their  condescension.  Frederic  also  gave 
offence  to  the  Bohemians  by  introducing  the  French  language 
at  court,  and  by  displaying  all  the  frivolity  of  French  manners 
and  fashions. 

But  the  most  serious  stumbling-block  was  the  religious 
point.  "The  church  of  the  Jesuits,"^  writes  Khevenhiiller, 
"was  ceded  to  the  Calvinist  predicants,  by  whom  it  was 
spoHated ;  and  in  it  sermons  were  preached  in  German,  and 
in  St.  Wenceslaus  Chapel  in  French.  In  preparing  the 
church  for  Calvinistic  service,  they  proceeded  in  the  following 
manner.  On  St.  Thomas's  day  afternoon,  the  beginning  was 
inade ;  the  Lords  Bohuslav,  Berka,  Ruppa,  and  Budowa,  and 
many  others  of  the  same  persuasion,  were  present,  when  all 
the  altars,  crucifixes,  and  statues  were  broken ;  nay,  they 
themselves  sometimes  would  take  up  the  hatchet  and  pickaxe 
to  help  in  the  work  of  destruction.  When  the  workmen  were 
going  to  lower  gently  the  large  crucifix,  which  was  above  the 
entry  of  the  choir,  so  that  it  might  not  break,  they  were 
ordered  to  throw  it  down,  nor  to  spare  anything ;  and  it  fell 
with  a  tremendous  crash,  as  if  the  whole  building  was  coming 
down.  Whereupon  the  Lord  Berbisdorf,  kicking  it  with  his 
foot,  called  out,  *  Here  thou  liest,  poor  fellow  !  if  thou  be  the 
Christ,  save  thyself.'  All  the  wood  carvings  of  the  altars  and 
the  crucifixes  and  statues  the  Calvinist  predicants  had  cut 
up,  and  used  the  pieces  as  firewood ;   and  they  would  have 

^  The  cathedral  of  St.  Vitus  on  the  Hradschin. 


272  FERDINAND     II. 

considered  it   a   great    sin   to   sell   any  of  them   to  Roman 
Catholics." 

By  this  most  impolitic  triumph  of  Calvinism,  Frederic 
estranged  from  him  not  only  the  Roman  Catholics  in 
Bohemia,  but  also  the  numerous  body  of  Lutherans  in  that 
kingdom,  and,  moreover,  all  the  Lutherans  in  Germany. 
Egged  on  by  his  all-powerful  chaplain  Scultetus,  he  went  so 
far  as  to  allow  sermons  to  be  preached  in  St.  Vitus's  church 
against  the  Utraquists  and  Lutherans.  On  Christmas  Day, 
1609,  he  publicly  celebrated  the  communion  according  to  the 
Calvinist  rite  as  a  mere  token  of  remembrance,  not  heeding 
that  the  Hussites,  whose  party  was  still  very  strong  in  the 
country,  had  carried  on  a  war  of  seventeen  years  for  the 
administration  of  the  sacrament  in  both  kinds.  A  contemporary 
writer  relates :  "  A  table  with  twelve  chairs  was  placed  in  the 
choir  for  the  Calvinist  communion.  The  King  broke  the  loaf 
for  himself ;  to  the  others  it  was  offered  in  bits  on  a  salver, 
from  which  each  took  a  morsel,  ate  it,  and  took  a  drink  after 
it."  Khevenhiiller  adds :  "  Many  hundred  persons  of  the 
congregation  came  to  witness  this  extraordinary  spectacle, 
and  were  greatly  shocked  at  it,  saying  that  they  never  in  their 
lives  had  heard  of  such  a  Eucharist,  and  that  they  deeply 
regretted  having  chosen  such  a  King  for  their  head."  A  riot 
nearly  broke  out  when  the  large  stone  crucifix  on  the  bridge 
over  the  Moldau  was,  like  the  rest,  to  be  pulled  down.  Count 
Thurn  succeeded  only  with  much  difficulty  in  pacifying  the 
great  mass  of  the  people.  It  was  necessary  to  place  a  guard 
on  the  bridge  with  orders  "to  fling  whosoever  should  lay 
hands  on  it,  without  any  consideration  of  rank,  from  the 
parapet  into  the  water."  Khevenhiiller  expressly  states  that 
Count  Thurn  warned  the  King  against  the  breaking  of  images, 
observing  to  him  that  his  Majesty  "  would  not  be  safe  in 
his  castle,  as  such  things  could  not  be  done  at  Prague  as 
easily  as  might  be  the  case  elsewhere." 

The  Lutherans,  enraged  against  the  Calvinists,  left 
nothing  undone  completely  to  undermine  Frederic.  The 
Saxon  court  preacher.  Hoe  von  Hoenegg,  inveighing  most 
violently  in   a  pamphlet  against   the   "  The   Calvinist   Fire- 


Frederic's  alliance   with   the   turks  273 

brand  Foxes"  {Die  calvinischen  Brandfüchse),  exclaims,  "Oh! 
what  a  shame  and  pity  it  is  that  so  many  noble 
countries  should  have  been  flung  into  the  jaws  of  rank 
Calvinism !  To  break  away  from  the  Western  Antichrist 
merely  to  exchange  it  for  the  Eastern  is  in  truth  very  scant 
profit." 

But  the  zealously  puritan,  yet  withal  very  frivolously 
minded,  Frederic  did  not  shrink  from  the  arch-enemy  of 
Christendom,  the  Grand  Turk.  The  Bohemians,  imme- 
diately after  the  defenestration,  had  despatched  the  Silesian 
Baron  Hans  von  Colin  as  their  envoy  to  the  Sublime  Porte. 
There  was  now  sent  in  return  Mehmed  Aga,  who  made  his 
solemn  entry  into  Prague  with  Count  Thurzo,  the  ambassador 
of  Bethlen  Gabor.  The  King  received  the  Mussulman  in 
public  audience,  and  invited  him  to  his  table,  where  the 
King's  own  brother  and  the  first  dignitaries  of  the  court  drank 
the  health  of  the  new  protector ;  but  it  made  a  very  bad  im- 
pression on  the  people  that  such  an  alliance  should  have 
been  solicited.  Upon  this,  Scultetus  delivered,  on  the  15th  of 
April,  1620,  a  sermon  in  St.  Vitus'  church,  in  which  he 
undertook  to  prove  that  in  reality  the  Turks  were  also  Christians. 
It  may  easily  be  imagined  that  this  sermon  made  even  a 
worse  impression.  Yet  the  hopes  of  the  court  party  were 
most  sanguine — it  was  the  pride  before  the  fall. 

Whilst  they  were  befooling  themselves  at  Prague  with 
visions  of  succour  from  England,  Venice,  Savoy,  and  Italy, 
Maximilian  and  Tilly,  the  two  fiercest  of  all  their  Papist 
enemies,  had  already  set  out  to  rescue  the  profaned  capital 
of  Bohemia  from  the  grip  of  its  Calvinist  desecrators. 

4. — The  expedition  of  Tilly  and  of  the  Duke  of  Bavaria  to  Bohemia 
— The  battle  of  the  White  Mountain,  and  the  executions  in  the 
Ring  at  Prague. 

Maximilian,  after  having  been  joined  in  Austria  by  Bouc- 

quoy,  approached   at  the  head  of  the  united   hosts  of  the 

Emperor  and  the  Catholic  League.     The  army  of  the  Pala- 

tinal  King  of  Bohemia,  under  the  old  Prince  of  Anhalt,  whose 

VOL.    I  18 


274  FERDINAND     II. 

headquarters  had  ever  since  February  been  at  Egenburg 
in  Austria,  now  retired  by  Budweis  in  Moravia  to  Neuhaus 
in  Bohemia,  and  from  thence  to  Thabor  and  Pilsen.  Mans- 
feld  and  Thurn,  who  stood  in  his  rear  in  Bohemia  and 
Moravia,  had  as  early  as  August  fallen  back  farther  into 
Bohemia  for  the  protection  of  the  country.  Having  crossed 
the  Bohemian  frontier  on  the  loth  of  September,  Maximilian 
entered  Budweis  on  the  22nd.  He  had  for  his  second  in 
command  Field-marshal  Count  Tilly,  the  first  of  that 
succession  of  great  captains  who  have  earned  their  fame  in 
the  Thirty  Years'  War. 

John  Tserclas  (Sir  Nicholas)  Count  Tilly  was  a  Walloon, 
born  in  the  year  1559,  of  a  very  ancient  noble  family  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Liege.  Being  a  younger  son,  he  had  been 
intended  for  the  Church,  and  received  his  education  in  the 
iron  school  of  the  Jesuits.  Afterwards  he  entered  the  military 
career,  rising  from  the  ranks  in  the  Spanish  armies  of  the 
Duke  of  Alba,  Don  John  of  Austria,  and  Alexander  Farnese. 
He  also  served  in  the  auxiliary  army  which  supported  the 
Guises  against  Henry  IV. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century  he  entered  the 
Austrian  service  against  the  Turks  in  Hungary;  and  in  1609 
that  of  the  Duke  of  Bavaria  and  of  the  Catholic  League. 
Tilly  was  long  past  the  prime  of  life  when  he  marched  with 
Maximilian  to  Bohemia,  but  he  was  still  very  hale,  having 
never  been  ill  in  his  life.  He  was  strong  and  muscular, 
although  small  and  spare,  and  stiff  in  his  movements.  He 
was  lantern-jawed,  his  complexion  swarthy,  his  forehead 
arched,  and  usually  contracted  by  deep  thought ;  his  sunken 
eyes,  overshaded  by  beetling  brows,  were  generally  fixed  on 
the  ground,  but  when  he  raised  them  they  were  keen  and 
piercing.  Under  his  long,  sharp  nose  he  wore  bristhng 
moustaches ;  his  hair  cut  short,  and  originally  sandy,  was  now 
white ;  his  chin  pointed,  and  thickly  covered  with  that  de- 
scription of  beard  which  in  these  days  would  be  called  an 
"  imperial."  Tilly  was  naturally  grave  and  taciturn,  gloomy 
and  stern ;  he  was  never  seen  to  lose  his  temper.  He  was  a 
thorough  soldier,  and  just  as  thorough  a  churchman.  Gustavus 


TILLY  275 

Adolphus  used  to  call  him  the  "parsons'  drudge";  but  he 
was  disinterested  and  modest,  temperate  and  chaste,  and 
very  kind  to  children.  Before  the  battle  of  Leipzig  he  could 
boast  of  never  having  drunk  wine,  of  never  having  known 
woman,  and  of  never  having  lost  a  battle.  His  appearance 
was  very  striking.  He  generally  was  mounted  on  a  white 
pony,  which  he,  although  stooping,  rode  very  fast.  In  his 
manner  of  speech  and  his  movements  he  was  exceedingly 
solemn,  and  there  was  much  in  him  to  remind  people  of  his 
great  master  in  the  art  of  war,  the  Duke  of  Alba,  only  he  was 
even  more  fanciful  and  ghostlike.  He  wore  the  costume  of  a 
Spanish  captain — a  bright  green  satin  doublet,  slashed  in  the 
sleeves;  leather  hose,  large  boots,  a  white  scarf,  a  strong 
rapier,  besides  a  dagger  and  a  pair  of  pistols  in  his  belt ;  to 
all  of  which  must  be  added  a  very  high-crowned  hat  sur- 
mounted by  a  red  ostrich  feather,  which  drooped  down  on  his 
back.  This  attire  was  so  uncommon  that  M.  de  Grammont* 
— who,  after  having  fled  his  country  for  a  duel,  came  to  Tilly's 
camp,  near  Leipzig,  to  be  initiated  by  him  in  the  art  of  war — 
took  him  for  a  mountebank  or  a  madman,  and  asked  him 
what  fashion  this  was.  Tilly  answered,  "  C'est  ä  ma  mode,  et 
cela  me  suffit."  But  Grammont  very  soon  found  out  that,  as 
he  says  himself,  he  never  had  met  with  a  more  sensible,  wise, 
and  energetic  commander.  Tilly  had  in  his  army  just  as 
absolute  power  as,  at  a  later  period,  his  rival  Wallenstein  had 
in  his.  And  now  he  was  riding  to  his  first  great  victory — the 
victory  of  Prague. 

Tilly  was  accompanied  in  his  ride  by  Pappenheim,  his 
second  in  command,  who  afterwards  became  the  most  cele- 
brated cavalry  general  of  the  great  war.  Godfrey  Henry  von 
Pappenheim  was  a  descendant  of  the  ancient  Swabian  house, 
which  held  the  hereditary  dignity  of  earl  marshals  of  the 
Empire ;  and  to  which  that  Marshal  von  Pappenheim  be- 
longed who,  in  1208,  revenged  the  murder  of  the  Hohenstaufen 
Emperor  Philip  on  the  assassin  Otto  von  Wittelsbach.  God- 
frey Henry  himself  had,  at  Ferdinand's  coronation  in  Prague 

*  Afterwards  celebrated  as  Marshal  Grammont. 

18—2 


276  FERDINAND     II. 

(1617),  as  earl  marshal,  carried  the  golden  orb.  He  was  born 
in  1594,  of  Protestant  parents.  He  entered  this  world,  as 
it  were,  marked  out  for  a  soldier,  with  two  large  red  seams 
like  a  couple  of  crossed  swords  on  his  forehead,  which  wer^at 
once  considered  to  forebode  a  warlike  career ;  and  the  prophecy 
certainly  came  true,  as  he  became  one  of  the  greatest  cavalry 
generals  of  the  seventeenth  century.  Nothing  could  withstand 
the  onslaught  of  his  Pappenheimers,  his  iron  cuirassiers,  when, 
rushing  on  at  their  head  like  the  wild  huntsman,  he  swept  the 
enemy's  battalions  from  the  field.  In  the  doggerel  ditties 
which  were  sung  of  him,  he  was  commonly  compared  to  the 
devil  himself.  Even  Gustavus  Adolphus  acknowledged  him, 
and  him  alone,  as  a  true  soldier,  ranking  far  above  the 
"parsons'  drudge"  Tilly,  and  above  Wallenstein,  whom  his 
Swedish  Majesty  used  to  style  a  madman.  Pappenheim, 
although  having  the  artillery  under  his  command,  used  to 
assault  the  fortresses  without  first  breaching  their  walls.  He 
had  studied  at  the  universities  of  Altdorf  and  Tübingen,  then 
made  the  usual  "  grand  tour,"  and  rendered  himself  conver- 
sant with  the  French  and  Italian  languages.  In  1614  he 
turned  Roman  Catholic.  At  a  later  period  he  became  one 
of  the  principal  partisans  of  the  Duke  of  Friedland.  Fer- 
dinand made  him  a  count  in  1628. 

At  the  approach  of  the  army  of  the  League,  the  Bohe- 
mians, as  has  been  stated  before,  retired  on  all  sides.  Near 
Budvveis  the  Spanish  Colonel  Verdugo,  with  Walloon  troops, 
joined  the  army  of  Maximilian,  Boucquoy's  division  having 
been  swelled  before  by  Maradas,  who  brought  Spanish  in- 
fantry from  Italy.  The  season  was  far  advanced,  and  the 
weather  began  to  be  cold  and  rough.  Boucquoy  advised 
against  proceeding  by  forced  marches ;  Maximilian  and  Tilly 
were  strongly  for  it.  The  latter,  who,  at  the  council  of  war, 
in  his  intense  impatience,  always  used  to  tear  something  or  to 
crumple  it  in  his  hands,  called  out  at  every  turn  of  the  debate, 
"  Prague  !  Prague  !  "  Near  Pilsen,  before  which  Maximilian 
encamped  on  the  13th  of  October,  they  at  last  fell  in  with 
Prince  Christian  of  Anhalt  and  the  new  King  of  Bohemia 
himself. 


ADVANCE    OF    THE     UNITED     ARMIES  277 

Old  Tilly  incessantly  pushed  on,  whilst  Anhalt  was  re- 
treating before  him.  The  King  himself  fell  back  with  Thurn 
on  Prague.  He  was  even  at  that  early  stage  of  the  war  so 
disheartened  as  to  send  the  Crown  Prince,  a  boy  of  seven 
years, ^  for  safety's  sake,  to  his  sister  (the  mother  of  the 
"  Great  Elector  ")  in  BerHn. 

Tilly  rode  on  through  a  pelting  rain  from  early  morning 
to  late  at  night,  leading  the  van  in  person  with  drawn  sword, 
and  driving  the  enemy  before  him.  He  held  to  it,  that  a 
battle  was  the  thing;  Prague  would  then  fall  of  itself,  and 
the  war  be  ended.  In  the  Bohemian  army  confusion  and 
terror  reigned  paramount.  Eighteen  Bavarian  cuirassiers 
once  put  250  Bohemian  horse  to  flight. 

On  the  8th  of  November,  1620,  at  the  dawn  of  morning, 
at  last  the  three  united  armies  of  the  Emperor,  of  the  Duke 
of  Bavaria,  and  of  the  League,  arrived  within  somewhat  less 
than  a  German  mile  of  Prague.  A  thick  fog  lay  on  the 
country.  It  happened  to  be  the  Twenty-third  (First)  Sunday 
after  Trinity,  in  the  gospel  of  which  day  the  passage  occurs : 
"  Render  unto  Caesar  the  things  which  are  Caesar's."  The 
army  of  the  Bohemians,  under  the  command  of  old  Prince 
Christian  of  Anhalt,  occupied  a  strong  position  on  the  White 
Mountain,  celebrated  by  the  heroic  achievements  of  Ziska. 
Its  numbers  scarcely  amounted  to  21,000  men.  The  army 
of  the  allies  was  stronger  by  about  10,000  men;  yet  the 
Bohemians,  although  being  aware  of  their  own  inferiority  of 
numbers,  weakened  themselves  even  more  by  leaving  seven- 
teen half-battalions  in  the  four  different  quarters  of  the  city  of 
Prague,  where  they  likewise  had  sent  all  their  artillery,  with 
the  exception  of  twelve  large  guns  which  they  kept  with  them. 
Anhalt  had  drawn  up  the  Bohemian  army  in  two  lines  of 
battle.  It  consisted  of  Bohemians,  Moravians,  Silesians, 
troops  from  the  Palatinate,  200  horse  and  2,000  infantry 
under  Duke  William  of  Weimar,  500  Dutch  horse  under 
Count  Styrum,  and  8,000  Hungarian  cavalry  under  the 
young  Prince  of  Anhalt.     It  was  a  bitterly  cold  day,  and 

1  The  elder  brother  of  the  father  of  the  Duchess  of  Orleans.     He  was 
afterwards  drowned  in  Holland. 


278  FERDINAND     II. 

the  ground  was  frozen  hard.  About  midday  the  fog,  in 
which  until  then  they  had  scarcely  been  able  to  see  five 
yards  before  them,  dissolved  in  slight  showers. 

Single  shots  were  already  exchanging  between  the  most 
advanced  outposts  of  the  two  armies.  The  generals  of  the 
allies,  Duke  Maximilian,  Tilly,  and  Boucquoy — the  latter  of 
whom  had,  on  account  of  a  slight  contusion  by  a  musket-ball, 
to  be  carried  in  a  litter — formed  a  circle  to  consult.  Bouc- 
quoy again  opposed  Tilly's  advice,  that  they  had  better  attack 
the  enemy  at  once.  Then  the  balance  was  turned  by  a  Spanish 
Carmelite,  Father  Dominicus  de  Jesu  Maria,  who  was  held  to 
be  a  saint  and  a  worker  of  miracles,  and  had  expressly  come 
from  Italy  to  the  Duke  of  Bavaria.  Dominicus  got  up  and 
said  to  the  generals  :  "  What,  ye  sons  of  the  Church,  ye  are 
fighting  with  empty  words,  now  that  the  Lord  of  hosts  has 
given  the  enemy  into  your  hands?  Look  here,  how  they 
have  treated  his  holy  mother ! "  Saying  this,  he  drew  forth 
from  his  frock  an  image  of  the  Virgin,  which  had  been  out- 
rageously mutilated  by  the  Bohemians,  and  held  it  up  before 
them.  The  duke  exclaimed,  ♦*  Holy  Mary  !  "  and  "  Holy 
Mary  "  became  the  war-cry  of  the  day. 

It  was  just  midday.  The  sun  burst  for  a  minute  from  the 
clouds.  All  went  to  their  posts.  The  imperialists  formed 
the  right  wing  of  the  line  of  battle,  the  Bavarians  the  left. 
The  imperial  army  comprised  those  German  regiments  which, 
newly  levied  at  that  time,  afterwards  fought  in  all  the  battles 
of  the  long  war,  and  some  of  which  still  exist  in  the  Austrian 
army,  in  particular  the  regiment  of  Rudolph  Tiefenbach,  to 
this  day  the  oldest  Austrian  regiment  of  foot ;  with  the  Nea- 
politan infantry  under  Carolo  Spinelli ;  and,  most  dreaded 
of  all,  the  Spanish  Walloon  infantry,  Boucquoy's  musketeers. 
The  imperial  cavalry  included  the  dragoons  of  Liechtenstein 
and  Wallenstein's  cuirassiers  ;  the  Spanish  Walloon  mounted 
arquebusiers  of  Don  Balthazar  Maradas  and  of  Don  Gulielmo 
Verdugo ;  the  Milanese  light  horse  of  Montecuculi ;  and, 
most  distinguished  of  all,  the  Walloon  heavy  cuirassiers 
of  Boucquoy  and  St.  Hilaire.  The  light  horse  of  the  fierce 
Croats,  led  now  for  the  first  time,  besides  the  Polish  lancers 


BATTLE     OF     THE    WHITE     MOUNTAIN  279 

and  Cossacks,  by  a  German  Emperor  into  the  heart  of  Ger- 
many, were  commanded  by  Colonel  John  Lewis  Hector 
Isolani ;  the  heavy  cavalry  of  the  League  by  Pappenheim. 
There  was  with  Tilly's  army  an  interesting  volunteer,  a  young 
Frenchman  of  about  twenty-four — no  other  than  Rene  Des- 
cartes, who  afterwards  earned  a  world-wide  celebrity  as 
the  founder  of  Rationalism  and  of  a  complete  system  of 
philosophy. 

Shortly  after  the  hour  of  noon  a  dozen  of  heavy  field- 
pieces,  called  the  Twelve  Apostles,  from  the  arsenal  of  Munich 
gave  the  signal  for  the  battle.  The  attack  was  headed  by 
Tilly  and  Rudolph  Tiefenbach,  who  led  the  troops  up  the 
declivity  of  the  White  Mountain.  They  had  to  defile  by  a 
single  narrow  bridge  through  a  village  commanded  by  the 
artillery  of  the  Bohemians ;  but  they  reckoned  on  the  con- 
fusion of  the  enemy,  of  which  they  were  well  aware.  The 
advance  was  made  in  close  squares  of  the  infantry,  the  horse 
being  placed  in  the  intervals  and  on  the  flanks.  They 
marched  on  with  drums  beating  and  with  tremendous  war- 
shouts. 

The  Bohemian  artillery  fired  into  the  squares ;  the  im- 
perialists returned  the  fire.  The  cannonade  lasted  about  half 
an  hour.  Now  the  young  Prince  of  Anhalt  made  a  successful 
attack  with  his  Hungarian  horse ;  the  regiment  of  Tiefenbach 
turned  to  flight ;  another  regiment  was  routed.  Isolani's 
Croats  also  gave  way.  Only  Don  Verdugo,  with  his  Walloons, 
withstood  the  attack  of  the  Hungarians. 

Maximilian  and  Boucquoy,  who  were  in  the  rear,  drove 
the  fugitives  with  drawn  swords  back  into  the  fray.  Pappen- 
heim then  led  his  heavy  Bavarian  cuirassiers  against  the 
Hungarians.  About  the  same  time  a  Polish  lancer  stabbed 
the  horse  of  the  young  Prince  of  Anhalt,  who  fell  with  it  and 
was  made  prisoner.  This  incident  decided  the  battle.  The 
tide  of  fortune  was  now  suddenly  turned ;  the  Hungarian 
cavalry  fled,  and  involved  the  whole  order  of  battle  of  the 
Bohemians  in  their  wild  confusion.  The  Neapolitans  under 
Spinelli  scaled  the  large  entrenchment  of  the  Bohemians,  and 
took  their  battery,  which  had  been  firing  until  then,  and  had 


28o  FERDINAND     II. 

done  great  havoc  among  the  enemy.  The  whole  battle  did 
not  last  more  than  an  hour. 

"  And  if  Alexander  the  Great,  and  Julius  Caesar,  and 
Charlemagne  had  been  present,"  Prince  Christian  of  Anhalt 
says,  in  his  report,  "they  could  not  have  induced  these  fellows 
to  make  a  stand." 

Only  in  the  royal  deer-park,  at  the  so-called  "  Star,"  a 
picked  body  of  young  Bohemian  nobles,  with  the  son  of 
Count  Thurn,  held  out  for  some  time,  Duke  William  of  Saxe- 
Weimar,  with  his  two  thousand  infantry,  particularly  distin- 
guishing himself:  their  defence  was  so  heroic  that,  of  all  the 
two  thousand  men,  twenty-six  only  escaped  with  their  lives. 
It  was  on  this  spot  that  Pappenheim,  covered  with  more  than 
twenty  cuts  and  stabs,  in  addition  to  innumerable  bruises, 
remained  lying  for  a  whole  night,  buried  under  the  corpses  of 
men  and  horses.  He  had  fallen  whilst  leading  the  attack,  and 
been  trampled  under  the  hoofs  of  the  horses  of  his  own 
squadrons.  Thus  he  lay  unconscious  all  that  long  cold 
November  night.  On  the  next  morning  a  Croat,  prowling 
about  for  plunder,  stumbled  on  him.  The  savage,  being 
unable  to  draw  a  costly  ring  from  his  finger,  tried  to  bite  it 
off.  The  pain  brought  Pappenheim  to  life  again.  Wildly 
looking  at  the  Croat,  he  roared  out,  "What  do  you  want, 
fellow?  "  The  Croat  replied,  "You  have  good  clothes  on  you, 
you  are  to  die."  Pappenheim,  although  half  dead,  at  once 
boxed  his  ears ;  but  promised  him  a  good  reward  if  he  would 
take  care  of  him.  The  Croat  now  conducted  the  wounded 
general  to  the  celebrated  surgeon  Andre,  at  Prague.  Duke 
Maximilian,  as  soon  as  he  was  apprised  of  the  news,  sent  to 
inquire  whether  Pappenheim  was  likely  to  get  over  it.  Andre 
gave  good  hopes,  "although,"  he  said,  "six  of  his  wounds 
were  fatal;  only  the  general  ought  not  to  be  so  excessively 
impatient."  Hearing  this,  Pappenheim  bellowed  forth  from 
his  bed,  "  But  how  in  the  world  can  one  help  losing  all 
patience  to  be  sewed  and  patched  in  this  way  ?  "  Andre  had 
prophesied  true  ;  his  impatient  patient  recovered,  having,  as 
by  a  miracle,  risen  from  the  dead. 

One  hour  had  decided  the  fate  of  Bohemia  for  centuries. 


FREDERIC  S  FLIGHT  FROM  PRAGUE  2ÖI 

Four  thousand  men  of  her  troops  covered  the  battlefield ;  the 
loss  of  the  allied  armies  amounted  to  about  the  tenth  part  of 
that  number.  The  conquerors  took  ten  guns  and  about  a 
hundred  stand  of  colours;  the  number  of  prisoners,  besides 
the  young  Prince  of  Anhalt,  amounted  only  to  about  five 
hundred  Bohemians. 

Frederic  had  not  been  present  at  the  battle.  He  was  no 
hero  in  war,  and  had  remained  behind  in  Prague  with  his 
wife.  That  during  the  fight  he  had  sat  quietly  down  at  the 
Hradschin  to  a  banquet  with  his  courtiers,  and  with  the 
English  ambassador,  has  never  been  proved,  nor  is  it  at  all 
likely.  People,  be  they  ever  so  young  and  thoughtless,  will 
not  revel  when  a  crown  is  at  stake.  The  fact  is  that  Frederic 
had  remained  in  the  town  to  superintend  the  supply  of 
ammunition  and  provisions  for  the  camp.  But,  with  all  that, 
there  cannot  be  the  least  doubt  of  his  want  of  courage,  which 
completed  the  general  confusion.  In  vain  the  young  Count 
Thurn  and  others  advised  him  to  maintain  Prague,  which  was 
strong  enough,  and  which  in  winter  could  never  be  invested ; 
where,  moreover,  besides  those  escaped  from  the  battle,  they 
had  still  seventeen  half-battalions  of  fresh  troops.  It  was 
quite  evident  that  a  hostile  army  could  not  hold  out  in 
Bohemia  in  winter  time.  Mansfeld  stood  near  with  upwards 
of  twelve  thousand  men,  occupying  Pilsen  and  Thabor,  and 
in  a  position  to  cut  off  the  enemy  from  all  their  supplies  and 
their  communications  in  the  rear  and  the  flanks. 

Frederic  was  timid,  but  instinctively  shrewd ;  he  was 
afraid,  and  justly  so,  of  the  Bohemian  lords,  who,  to  obtain 
better  conditions  of  peace  from  the  Emperor,  might  have 
given  him  up  to  Ferdinand.  Such  a  policy  was  by  no  means 
unlikely  to  be  adopted  by  the  Bohemian  aristocracy. 

On  the  morning  after  the  fatal  day,  the  "Winter  King" 
(king  of  a  winter)  fled  from  Prague,  leaving  behind,  as  he 
hurriedly  entered  his  travelling  carriage,  his  crown  and 
jewels,  even  his  George  of  the  Order  of  the  Garter,  richly 
set  in  diamonds,  a  wedding  present  from  his  father-in-law — 
and,  what  was  of  greater  importance,  the  archives  of  the 
kingdom,  and  his  own  secret  papers,  which  were  afterwards 


282  FERDINAND     II. 

published  in  print  by  the  imperialists  under  the  title  of 
"Anhalt's  Chancellery"  [Anhaltische  Kanzlei).  He  was 
accompanied  by  his  wife,  who  was  in  an  advanced  state  of 
pregnancy;  by  his  three  younger  children — the  youngest, 
Prince  Rupert,  an  infant  of  eleven  months — by  Count  Solms, 
his  German  lord  steward ;  by  the  old  Prince  of  Anhalt ;  by 
Count  Hohenlohe,  and  by  old  Thurn.  They  first  went  to 
Breslau,  and  from  thence  to  Berlin,  where  Frederic  arrived 
on  the  3rd  of  January,  162 1 ;  then  by  Wolfenbüttel  to 
Hamburg,  and  at  last  to  the  Hague.  The  Elector  of 
Brandenburg,  being  afraid  of  the  Emperor's  anger,  would 
scarcely  allow  his  sister-in-law  to  lie  in  at  Cüstrin.  The 
melancholy  and  romantic  queen  followed  her  husband  to 
Holland.  There  they  held  in  that  country  a  court  at 
Rheenen,  near  Utrecht,  where  she  hunted  with  her  husband, 
conversed  with  the  Dutch  nobility,  and  cultivated  flowers. 
The  States-General  allowed  to  the  exiled  Elector  150,000 
Brabant  guilders  a  year ;  the  rest — and  Frederic  spent  a 
great  deal  of  money — was  supplied  by  his  father-in-law. 

This  was  the  battle  of  the  White  Mountain  of  Prague, 
"by  whose  thunder  and  roar,"  as  Count  Khevenhüller 
expresses  it,  "  the  stormy  clouds  which  had  hung  for 
eighteen  months  over  the  house  of  Austria  were  dispersed 
and  chased  away."  It  was  one  of  the  most  momentous  in 
the  history  of  the  world.  Bohemia,  until  then  an  indepen- 
dent European  country,  after  having  given  the  first  impulse 
by  its  university  of  Prague  to  the  spread  of  learned  education 
in  Germany,  and  by  its  example  to  the  struggle  for  religious 
liberty  all  over  the  north  and  centre  of  Europe,  became  now, 
owing  to  the  rottenness  of  its  aristocracy,  a  mere  province 
of  Austria,  which  it  has  remained  ever  since. 

At  noon  of  the  same  day,  gth  of  November,  1620,  in  the 
early  morning  of  which  Frederic  had  fled,  the  Duke  of 
Bavaria,  with  Tilly  and  Boucquoy,  made  his  entrance  at  the 
Hradschin. 

William  Lobkowitz  Hassenstein,  the  Bohemian  lord 
steward  of  the  "  Winter  King,"  undertook  to  negotiate 
between   the   conquerors   and  the   rebels.     On    the    nth  of 


THE     REVENGE    OF    THE     EMPEROR  283 

November  the  city,  and  on  the  13th  and  14th  the  Estates, 
made  their  submission.  The  Bohemian  lords  had  at  once 
become  exceedingly  obsequious  towards  the  much-abused 
Emperor  Ferdinand.  On  the  17th  of  November  Maximilian 
left  Prague,  after  having  entrusted  the  regency  to  Prince 
Charles  Liechtenstein,  who  had  been  appointed  by  the  Em- 
peror commissioner-general  in  Bohemia.  Tilly  marched  to 
the  Palatinate  to  occupy  Frederic's  hereditary  country; 
Boucquoy  went  to  Hungary  to  make  war  against  Bethlen 
Gabor  of  Transylvania,  and  was  killed  in  1621  in  a  skir- 
mish before  the  fortress  of  Neuhäusel ;  Dampierre  had  met 
with  a  soldier's  death  the  year  before  at  an  attack  against 
Pressburg. 

Several  of  the  Bohemian  malcontents,  imitating  the 
example  of  WilUam  of  Orange,  had  after  the  catastrophe 
discreetly  fled  the  country ;  but  most  of  the  great  lords, 
unwarned  by  the  fate  of  the  Counts  of  Egmont  and  Horn, 
stayed  in  Prague,  as  heretofore,  in  proud  security.  None  of 
them  had  the  least  notion  that  the  same  might  happen  to 
themselves,  otherwise  they  also  would  have  gone. 

The  revenge  of  the  Emperor  was  as  complete  as  his  victory 
had  been ;  Ferdinand  did  the  same  thing  at  Prague  which 
Alba  had  done  at  Brussels — he  waited  and  went  on  tem- 
porising for  seven  months.  His  drift  was  to  decoy  the 
Bohemian  lords,  to  reassure  them,  and  to  lure  them  into  the 
trap  ;  and  he  succeeded  only  too  well. 

Maximilian  and  Tilly  on  entering  Prague  had  pledged 
themselves  that  an  amnesty  should  be  granted.  It  was  Tilly's 
advice  not  to  drive  the  Estates  to  desperate  extremities;  but 
the  imperial  commissioner  knew  very  well  that  people  who 
have  a  bad  conscience  are  by  no  means  prone  to  take  desperate 
steps,  but  are  rather  glad  to  bow  low.  He  seems  to  have  ex- 
pressed himself  to  that  effect  to  Tilly,  who,  even  as  late  as  in 
February,  1621,  dropped  hints  to  several  of  the  nobles  to  seek 
safety  in  flight ;  yet  they  were  fooHsh  enough  to  neglect  the 
warning. 

On  the  28th  of  February,  1621,  forty-eight  of  the  leaders  of 
the  rebellion  were  arrested  and  placed  in  durance  vile  at  the 


284  FERDINAND     II. 

Hradschin.  Further  proceedings  were  put  off  until  Mansfeld 
should  have  left  Bohemia ;  at  last  he  was  forced  to  fall  back 
on  the  Upper  Palatinate.  Ferdinand  was  still  vacillating  as 
to  whether  the  Bohemian  rebels  should  or  should  not  be  dealt 
with  in  the  Spanish  fashion ;  but  Father  Lamormain,  his 
Jesuit  confessor,  put  an  end  to  his  scruples  by  declaring 
that  he  would  take  the  whole  responsibility  on  his  own 
conscience ;  and  Ferdinand,  who  saw  in  every  priest  a 
mouthpiece  of  the  Divine  will,  gave  in.  On  the  following 
morning  the  dread  messenger  who  was  to  carry  to  the 
governor,  Prince  Charles  of  Liechtenstein — the  ancestor  of 
the  present  princely  house — the  last  order  of  the  Emperor, 
was  on  his  way  to  Prague. 

And  now  followed  the  bloody  day  of  judgment  in  the 
Altstadt  Ring  (Old  City  Circus)  of  Prague,  the  terrible  21st 
of  June,  1621. 

At  four  in  the  morning  the  heavy  boom  of  a  cannon 
was  heard  from  the  Hradschin — it  was  the  signal  for  the 
executions.  The  prisoners,  escorted  by  a  squadron  of  cuiras- 
siers and  200  musketeers,  were  driven  in  six  or  seven  covered 
carriages  to  the  Altstadt.  The  scaffold,  covered  with  red 
cloth,  was  erected  close  before  the  town-hall  in  the  Ring  op- 
posite the  church  called  Theinkirche,  which  was  surmounted 
by  the  large  chalice  with  the  sword,  the  emblem  of  the 
Hussites.  The  martyrs  of  the  Bohemian  cause  stepped  from 
the  windows  of  the  town-hall  out  on  the  scaffold,  the  top  of 
which  was  on  a  level  with  the  first  story.  Prince  Liechten- 
stein was  present  in  person,  sitting  on  a  raised  platform  under 
a  dais,  with  the  other  eleven  commissioners  appointed  by  the 
Emperor. 

It  happened  with  the  Bohemian  martyrs  as  with  the  mag- 
nanimous John  Frederic  of  Saxony — they  behaved  like  brave 
men  in  the  hour  of  misfortune.     They  all  died  joyous  in  faith. 

It  was  five  before  the  executions  began.  A  slight  shower 
fell,  and,  to  the  no  small  comfort  of  the  martyrs,  a  fine  rain- 
l)Ow  spanned  the  horizon. 

The  executioner  began  his  task — he  beheaded  within  four 
hours,  from   five  to  nine,  twenty-four   persons:    three  were 


A     PERFIDIOUS    AMNESTY  285 

hanged.  The  first  to  die  was  John  Andrew  Count  Schlick,  an 
intimate  friend  of  Count  Thurn.  He  had  taken  refuge  in 
Saxony;  but  the  Lutheran  Elector  John  George  delivered 
him  up  to  the  Emperor.  Schlick  stoutly  refused  to  listen  to 
the  Papist  priest  who  was  appointed  to  attend  him  on  the 
scaffold ;  but  he  prayed  by  himself  before  the  crucifix  which 
was  stuck  up  there,  after  which  he  knelt  down  to  receive  the 
death-blow.  After  him  followed  his  twenty-three  fellow- 
prisoners,  all  of  them  Protestants,  except  one,  Denis  Czernin, 
an  ancestor  of  the  present  family  of  Czernin  and  Chudenitz. 
This  lord  was  beheaded,  although  a  Papist,  in  order  at  least 
to  make  a  slight  show  that  this  wholesale  judicial  slaughter 
had  been  a  political  necessity,  not  a  mere  act  of  religious 
persecution.  There  were  good  reasons  for  saving  appearances 
for  the  present — another  more  important  scheme  was  still 
kept  in  the  background. 

The  decapitated  lords  were  most  of  them  very  old ;  the 
aggregate  age  of  ten  among  them  was  calculated  to  have 
been  700  years.  One  only,  whilst  already  kneeling  down, 
was  reprieved,  and  had  his  punishment  commuted  into  im- 
prisonment for  life — William  Lobkowitz-Hassenstein. 

During  the  execution,  two  squadrons  of  cavalry  and  three 
half-battalions  of  infantry  were  drawn  up  in  the  Ring.  Troops 
were  likewise  placed  in  all  the  public  squares  of  the  city,  and 
the  streets  scoured  by  mounted  patrols  of  from  six  to  nine 
cuirassiers.     All  the  gates  were  locked. 

It  was  very  characteristic  of  Ferdinand,  that,  whilst  the 
victims  were  meeting  their  doom,  he  prayed  for  them.  He 
expressly  made  a  pilgrimage  on  foot  to  the  celebrated  image 
of  the  Virgin  at  Mariazell  in  Styria,  before  which  he  pros- 
trated himself,  praying  that  the  Bohemians  might  be  en- 
lightened in  their  last  moments  and  led  back,  before  their 
death,  into  the  bosom  of  the  only  true  and  Catholic  Church. 
It  was  an  article  of  faith  with  Ferdinand  "  to  work  out 
salvation  with  fear  and  trembling  ;  "  he  even  boasted  that  he 
had  his  subjects  tortured  and  executed  only  from  Christian 
charity,  so  that  their  bodies  might  die,  but  their  souls  by 
forcible  means  of  grace  be  blessed  with  everlasting  salvation, 


286  FERDINAND    II. 

and  especially  that  unborn  generations  might  not  likewise  be 
corrupted  by  heresy. 

Eleven  months  after  the  executions  in  the  Altstadt  Ring, 
Ferdinand  caused  a  general  pardon  to  be  proclaimed,  23rd  of 
March,  1622.  It  was  just  the  fourth  anniversary  of  the 
"  Defenestratio  Pragensis."  The  proclamation  called  upon 
everyone  who  was  conscious  of  being  guilty  to  become  his 
own  accuser  in  order  to  obtain  the  Emperor's  pardon.  And 
indeed  the  Bohemian  aristocracy  had  not  yet  learned  wisdom  by  ex- 
perience ;  no  less  than  728  nobles  were  good-natured  enough  to  inform 
against  themselves,  for  which  they  were  rewarded  by  the  con- 
fiscation, some  of  the  whole,  others  of  two-thirds,  of  half,  and 
of  one-third,  of  their  property.  The  main  point  in  the  Emperor's 
cabinet  was  the  raising  of  money.  The  confiscated  estates  not 
only  furnished  the  Emperor  with  the  means  of  binding  the 
newly  created  nobles  to  the  imperial  interest,  but  also  for 
continuing  the  war.  This  consideration  evidently  was  para- 
mount, being  commanded  by  necessity  ;  for  Austria,  as  usual, 
had  no  money. 

The  sums  raised  from  the  estates  which  were  thus  con- 
fiscated from  the  pardoned  Bohemian  nobles  amounted,  about 
the  period  of  Ferdinand's  death,  to  43,000,000  florins,  an  im- 
mense sum  for  those  times,  when  money  was  still  very  scarce. 
The  protocol  of  the  confiscations  formed  a  large  folio.  All  the 
landed  property  of  the  country  changed  owners. 

The  innocent  sons  and  grandsons  of  the  condemned  had 
to  wear  a  red  silk  string  round  their  neck,  as  a  token  '*  that 
the  spawn  of  the  rebels  had  likewise  deserved  the  halter." 
The  judges  said,  "  If  there  be  anyone  among  you  without 
sin  of  his  own,  yet  there  cleaves  to  him  the  hereditary  crime  of 
heresy  and  of  being  too  wealthy.'' 

Now  followed  the  last  act  of  the  Bohemian  tragedy — 
wholesale  emigration.  In  those  days,  as  Pelzel  has  averred 
from  a  manuscript  of  the  then  chief  chancellor,  William 
Slawata,  no  less  than  185  noble  houses  of  twelve,  twenty, 
and  even  fifty  persons  each,  and,  besides,  many  thousand 
families  of  commoners  and  citizens,  left  their  country  for 
ever.     The  prophecy  was  then  fulfilled,  that  "The  time  will 


THE     "  ROYAL    LETTER  "     BURNT  287 

come  when  a  man's  foes  shall  be  they  of  his  own  household." 
Of  the  same  house,  sometimes  one  branch  had  its  estates 
confiscated,  whilst  another  branch  was  enriched  by  the  con- 
fiscation. Many  Bohemians  went  to  Silesia,  many  to  Saxony, 
and  many  to  Nuremberg  and  Ratisbon  ;  others  to  Branden- 
burg, to  Holland,  to  Denmark,  and  to  Poland.  Among  these 
emigrating  noble  houses  who  were  thus  stripped  of  their 
property,  there  were  some  very  ancient  and  wealthy  ones, 
as  the  families  of  Lobkowitz-Hassenstein,  Sternberg,  Schlick, 
Thurn,  Kolowrat,  Roggendorf,  Czernin,  Zierotin,  Colonna- 
Fels,  Wartenberg,  Kinsky,  Chotek,  Berka,  Bubna,  and  many 
others.  The  ranks  of  the  rebels  even  comprised  a  scion  of  a 
family  which  now  stands  foremost  among  the  loyal  ones — 
Christopher  Radetzky,  who  was  mulcted  in  a  third  of  his 
estates.  From  those  days  date  the  Bohemian  congregations 
at  Dresden  and  in  other  places.  These  Bohemian  emigrants 
contrived  withal  to  save  considerable  property  ;  the  congrega- 
tion at  Dresden,  for  instance,  was  very  rich. 

Yet,  notwithstanding  all  this  drain,  there  were,  according 
to  Rieger's  "  Materials  for  Bohemian  Statistics,"  in  the  times 
of  Joseph  IL,  in  1787  and  1788,  45,000  Protestants,  partly 
Lutherans  and  partly  Calvinists,  in  Bohemia,  most  of  them  in 
the  circles  of  Chrudim  and  Czaslau ;  in  Prague  itself  not  more 
than  a  hundred. 

The  chief  burgrave,  Adam  von  Waldstein,  brought  the 
celebrated  Royal  Letter,  the  Majestäts-brief  of  Rodolph  IL, 
and  the  other  charters  of  the  kingdom  of  Bohemia,  to  Vienna. 
Ferdinand  received  them  with  the  notable  words,  "  These, 
then,  are  the  rags  of  waste  paper  which  have  given  so  much 
trouble  to  our  predecessors."  The  Majestäts-brief  he  cut  in 
pieces  with  his  own  hand,  and  threw  it  with  the  other  "  rags 
of  waste  paper  "  into  the  fire.  Bohemia  lost  all  her  national 
liberties,  the  liberty  of  election  and  of  religion,  and  the  joint 
entail  of  the  estates  of  the  aristocracy.  She  also  lost  her 
language  and  literature.  All  the  books  written  in  Bohemian, 
the  manuscripts  and  splendid  codices  from  the  flourishing 
times  of  Charles  IV.,  George  Podiebrad,  and  Rodolph  II. 
were,  as  heretical   abominations,  publicly  burnt  under  the 


288  FERDINAND     II. 

gallows,  and  all  the  records  of  Bohemia's  glorious  past  sys- 
tematically destroyed. 

The  Roman  mass  was  again   celebrated    in    Prague   on 
Maundy  Thursday,  1622.     The  chalice  and  sword  were  taken 
down  from  the  Theinkirche,  and  on  the  6th  of  July,  the  anni- 
versary of  the  death  of  John  Huss,  the  churches  shut  up. 
Until  then  only  the  preachers  of  the  Bohemian  brethren  had 
been  banished  the  country,  the  Lutherans  being  spared  out  of 
consideration  for  the  Elector  of  Saxony.     Yet  the  time  of 
forbearance   was   now   past.      In   October  all  the  Lutheran 
ministers  were  ordered  to  leave  the  country  forthwith,  after 
which   the   whole   kingdom   was   overrun   with   Jesuits   and 
Capuchins.     Even  the  papal  nuncio,  Carlo  Caraffa,  expressed 
his  fear  lest  this  was  going  too  much  ahead ;  but  Ferdinand, 
swayed  by  Lamormain,  declared   that   his  conscience  urged 
him   to   annihilate   all  the  heretics ;    and  the   Elector  John 
George,  whom  his  divines  called  "the   Saxon   David,"  but 
the  Jesuits   "  the  Merseburg  Beer-Geordy,"  quietly  put  up 
with  the  expulsion  of  the  Protestants.     No  Protestant  was 
allowed  any  longer  to  entail  his  property ;  in  all  the  towns 
the  magistrates  were  changed,  to  the  exclusion  of  everyone 
not  a  Papist.     Those  who  refused  to  embrace  Popery  had  the 
soldiers — Spaniards,  Walloons,  Croats,  all  sorts  of  ruthless 
and  brutal  cut-throats — quartered  upon  them,  "to  bring  them 
to  their  senses  by  necessity,"  as  Caraffa  expressed  it.    Caraffa 
was  quite  amazed  at  the  demure  conduct  of  the  citizens  of 
Prague  ;    every  Sunday  two  or  three  thousand  people  were 
seen  attending  mass.     At  last,  in  1627,  all  the  Protestants 
were  expelled  from  Bohemian  soil.      In  the  following  year 
(25th  of  April,  1628)  Ferdinand,  as  "Catholicae  fidei  acerrimus 
defensor,"  founded,  for  the  perpetual  commemoration  of  the 
victory  over  the  rebels,  the  church  of  St.  Maria  de  Victoria  on 
the  White  Mountain,  the  first  stone  of  which  was  laid  in  pre- 
sence of  the  imperial  family  by  the  Cardinal  Archbishop  of 
Prague,  Ernest  von  Harrach. 

The  counter-reformation  was  enforced  likewise  in  Mo- 
ravia— where  Count  Thurn,  after  his  flight  from  Prague,  had 
in  vain  endeavoured  to  keep  the  insurrection  alive — and  also 


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FERDINAND     11 


gallows,  and  all  the  records  of  Bohemia's  glorious 
tematically  destroyed. 

The  R' ;t:Iii   ma^^'^   >.\riä  again    celebrated    in    Prague   on 
Maund"  The  chalice  and  sword  were  taken 

down  fi\...  --.-  -  -  che,  and  on  the  6th  of  July,  the  anni- 
versary of  the  death  of  John  Huss,  the  churches  shut  up. 
Until  th  '     i:he  preachers  of  the  Bohei-q:£an  brethren  had 

been  bai  .e  country,  the  Luthera^  b^ing  spared  out  of 

consideration  for  the  ^lector  of  S^oi^.  ►^'et  the  time  of 
forbearance  was  now|past.  In  C^tofor  Ql  the  Lutheran 
ministers  were  orderecpto  leav^hejCogiti^  forthwith,  after 
which  the  whole  kin^om  wa^  o^rrgja  ^th  Jesuits  and 
Capuchins.  Even  the^apal  nuiKio^a^  (^rafFa,  expressed 
his  fear  lest  this  was  g|ing  too  |^uc^  a^ad  i  but  Ferdinand, 


the  rna^' 
not  a  Papist. 

■g".aT5tre 

at-throa; 

- 

_  .ssity, 

:  the  de 

swayed  by  LamormaiiJ^  declared  tfet  '^s  Conscience  urged 


him  to  annihilate  all^he  here^S;^  a^  ^e  Elector  John 
George,  whom  his  divides  calle^  ''khe^a.H^n  David,"  but 
the  Jesuits  "the  Mer|eburg  Bfe^r-Geo^y^  quietly  put  up 
with  the  expulsion  oi'^he  Prot^tai3!s.^Nl#  Protestant  was 
allowed  lo^ntail  his^' pr>^er tv  ;^n  all  the  towns 

d,  m  tne  ^elusion  of  everyone 
■isejä  tcp^mLfac^  Popery  had  the 
'^'-■^s,!^!!  Äorts  of  ruthless 
■2^'\  'rBen;^  "to  bring  them 
'"araffa 
ns  of 
Jay  two  or  three  thou0nd  people  were 

'--t    :n  1627,  all  th-  "--— 

n.      In  thp 

(2  . 

deL.:.. ...., ■ 

victory  over  the  rebels,  the  church  of  St.  !> 

th.       ' 

seT  ^  ,.      .  of 

Prague,  Ernest  von  Harrach. 

The  counter-reformation  was  enforced  likewise  in  Mo- 
ravia— where  Count  Thurn,  after  his  flight  from  Prague,  had 
in  vain  endeavoured  to  keep  the  insurrection  alive — and  also 


RESISTANCE    OF     UPPER     AUSTRIA  289 

in  Austria.  In  1627  the  Protestant  citizens  of  Vienna  and 
the  noble  landowners  of  Austria  had  a  term  of  four  months 
allowed  them  to  declare  whether  they  would  turn  Papists,  or 
sell  their  property  and  estates  and  emigrate.  The  emigration 
then  began ;  only  a  few  old  noble  houses  remained.  New 
families,  to  whom  these  confiscated  estates  were  granted,  took 
the  place  of  the  emigrated.  Many  of  the  old  family  names, 
however,  were  propagated  in  Austria  by  apostate  scions  of 
the  emigrated  houses  returning  and  abjuring  Protestantism. 

In  Upper  Austria  alone  a  formidable  opposition  was 
offered.  This  province  had  been  pledged  by  the  Emperor 
to  Maximilian  of  Bavaria  for  the  payment  of  the  expenses 
of  the  war.  The  duke  appointed  as  his  governor  at  Linz 
Count  Adam  Herberstorf,  a  very  harsh  man.  The  nobility 
had  left  the  country.  Easter  day,  1626,  being  fixed  as  the 
last  term  by  which  every  trace  of  heresy  was  to  have  vanished, 
the  peasantry,  the  greater  part  of  whom  were  Protestants, 
resolved  upon  staking  their  all  in  fighting  for  evangelical 
freedom.  To  the  number  of  80,000,  part  of  them  formed  in 
regiments  dressed  all  in  black  as  mourning  for  the  distress 
of  the  country,  they  appeared  before  Linz,  under  the  command 
of  Stephen  Fadinger,  a  wealthy  member  of  their  own  body, 
and  of  the  so-called  Unknown  Student,  whose  name  has  never 
been  revealed.  Both  these  leaders  met  with  their  death  in 
the  contest.  In  November,  1626,  Pappenheim,  who  was 
Herberstorf's  stepson,  succeeded  in  conquering  the  peasants ; 
not,  however,  without  having  encountered  the  most  resolute 
resistance  on  their  side.  He,  who  had  long  been  familiar  with 
all  the  horrors  of  war,  states  in  a  letter  that  he  had  never 
seen  such  wild  fury  of  war  as  when  the  peasants,  singing 
psalms,  or  with  the  terrible  battle-cry  of: 

"  Since  'tis  for  our  souls,  for  death  or  life. 
May  God  make  us  heroes  in  the  strife. 
It  must  be,  dear  Brethren  !     It  must  be  I  "* 

broke  into  the  ranks  of  his  troopers,  tore  them  from  their 

1  "  Weil's  gilt  die  Seel  und  auch  das  Blut, 
So  geb'  uns  Gott  den  Heldenmuth  ! 
Es  muss  sein  !  Liebe  Brüder!  Es  muss  sein  I  " 

VOL.    I  19 


290  FERDINAND     II. 

horses,  and  stoutly  attacked  them  with  clubs,  lances,  and 
morning- stars  (spike-clubs) ;  and  likewise  he  had  lost  many 
men  by  the  galling  fire  from  ditches  and  woods,  and  from 
behind  bushes  and  hedges. 

The  principal  ringleaders  were  executed  at  Linz ;  and  the 
country,  after  being  reduced  by  Pappenheim,  was  held  in 
check  by  military  occupation. 

In  this  manner  Bohemia,  with  Moravia  and  the  whole 
of  Austria,  was  brought  back  to  Popery  by  force.  We  have 
Hormayr's  authority  for  it,  that  throughout  all  the  Austrian 
monarchy  only  about  thirty  old  Roman  Catholic  noble  families 
were  left.  Of  the  whole  old  Bohemian  nobility  there  remained 
only  about  eighteen  houses ;  among  them  the  newly  created 
Princes  of  Lobkowitz,  and  the  newly  created  Counts  of 
Martinitz  and  Slawata,  the  victims  of  the  "  Defenestratio 
Pragensis."  Of  the  old  nobility  of  Austria  Proper  not  more 
than  about  thirteen  houses  remained;  yet  there  were  some 
converts,  as,  for  instance,  the  Liechtensteins,  the  Althanns, 
and  the  Kuffsteins.  Of  the  Bohemians,  as  has  been  stated 
before,  many  families  emigrated  to  Silesia.  Of  the  Austrian 
emigrants  a  great  number  settled  in  the  Protestant  cities  of 
Nuremberg  and  Ratisbon ;  among  them  the  Zinzendorfs,  who, 
however,  afterwards  found  a  new  home  in  Saxony,  where  the 
celebrated  Bishop  Zinzendorf  formed  the  establishment  of 
the  Moravian  brethren  at  Herrnhut.  Many  Bohemian  and 
Austrian  emigrants  took  service  in  the  Swedish,  French, 
Danish,  Brunswick,  Hessian  armies ;  in  that  of  the  States- 
General,  in  Transylvania,  in  Poland,  even  in  Turkey.  Of 
the  Austrians  the  greater  part  returned  after  some  time 
to  their  own  country,  and  became  voluntary  converts  to 
the  Roman  Catholic  faith. 

The  heart  sickens  at  the  horrors  which  attended  the  forced 
conversions.  Shocking  details  of  them  are  given,  among 
others,  by  Hormayr,  in  his  Annual  of  1836.  The  things 
which  happened  then  were  much  worse  even  than  the 
atrocities  of  the  Dragonnades  under  Louis  XIV.  All  the 
brutal  and  barbarous  religious  fanaticism  of  the  middle  ages, 
aggravated  and  envenomed  by  Jesuit  statecraft,  found  here 


DOHNA,     THE     WORKER     OF     SALVATION  29I 

a  dreadful  vent.  To  Frederic  von  Roggendorf  the  Emperor 
sent  an  offer  of  pardon  if  he  would  return.  He  declined  the 
offer  with  the  very  pertinent  remark,  "  What  pardon  ?  a 
Bohemian  one?  Head  off!  A  Moravian?  Imprisonment 
for  life !     An  Austrian  ?     Confiscation  of  every  property  !  " 

To  Silesia  better  conditions  were  promised,  because  the 
inhabitants  of  this  province  had  made  their  submission  only 
on  the  express  promise  of  the  Elector  of  Saxony  that  their 
religious  liberty  should  be  secured  to  them.  Yet,  notwith- 
standing this  imperial  promise,  the  president  of  the  chamber 
(lord  treasurer),  Count  Charles  Hannibal  Dohna,  with  his 
ruthless  bands  of  Liechtenstein  dragoons,  went  from  house  to 
house  throughout  the  whole  country,  accompanied  by  Jesuits 
and  Capuchins,  to  convert  the  inhabitants  by  force.  If  threats, 
spoliation,  torture,  were  of  no  avail,  they  snatched  the  children 
from  the  arms  of  their  mothers  and  tormented  them  before 
the  eyes  of  their  parents.  Two  officers  once  took  up  a  naked 
infant  each  by  a  leg,  cleft  it  with  the  sword,  and  gave  the  two 
halves  back  to  the  parents  with  the  brutal  words,  ^^  Here  you  have 
it  sub  utraque  !  "  This  Dohna  self-complacently  called  himself 
"  the  worker  of  salvation."  The  oppression  of  the  Protestants 
in  Silesia  continued  until  Charles  XII.  of  Sweden,  on  his 
expedition  to  Saxony  in  1707,  obliged  the  Emperor  to  fulfil 
the  clauses  of  the  compact ;  and  even  afterwards,  until  the 
conquest  of  Silesia  in  1741  by  Frederic  II.,  whose  advent  was 
hailed  there  with  delight. 

Bethlen  Gabor  of  Transylvania  concluded,  in  1622, 
his  peace  with  the  Emperor  at  Nicholsburg.  Ferdinand 
left  to  him  eight  Hungarian  counties,  with  the  town  of 
Kaschau,  besides  the  two  Silesian  principalities  of  Ratibor 
and  Oppeln. 

The  Elector  of  Saxony  received,  for  the  services  which  he 
had  rendered  to  the  Emperor,  the  two  Lusatias  as  a  redeem- 
able pledge.  The  Elector  of  Brandenburg,  in  reward  of  his 
inactive  neutrality,  was  invested  as  liege-lord  of  the  fief  of 
Prussia. 

The  Spaniards  under  Spinola  and  Cordova  still  overran 
the  Rhenish,  and  Tilly  reduced  the  Upper  Palatinate. 

19 — 2 


292  FERDINAND     II. 

5. — The  new  Catholic  aristocvacy  of  Austria,  and  the  great  creation 
of  Counts  and  Princes. 

The  executions  of  the  Protestants  found  a  counterpart  in 
the  rewards  of  those  who  had  remained  faithful  to  the 
Emperor.  It  has  always  been  the  selfish  policy  of  the  house 
of  Habsburg  to  purchase  peace  with  foreign  hostile  powers 
by  the  sacrifice  of  territories  not  its  own,  but  belonging  to  the 
German  Empire ;  and  likewise  to  reward  its  friends  and 
servants  with  the  honours  and  dignities,  not  of  its  own  crown 
lands,  but  of  those  of  the  German  peerage. 

After  the  victory  of  the  White  Mountain,  Ferdinand 
created  new  German  princes  and  counts  of  the  Empire  "  by 
dozens."  A  whole  bevy  of  Italian,  Spanish,  Hungarian, 
Polish,  and  even  Croatian  recipients  of  the  imperial  favour 
were  then  foisted  into  the  German  aristocracy.  From  those 
times  dates  the  difference  between  old  and  new  princely 
houses.  By  the  side  of  such  families  as  the  Guelphs,  the 
Saxon  Wettins,  and  the  Holstein  Gottorps,  scions  of  which 
are  now  occupying  the  two  first  thrones  in  the  world,  the 
English  and  Russian,  Ferdinand  II.  planted  houses  like  the 
Liechtensteins,  until  then  neither  more  nor  less  than  simple 
gentlemen,  small  nobles,  vivi  nobiles,  not  even  illustres.  These 
Liechtensteins  have  risen  in  the  nineteenth  century  even  to 
the  rank  of  sovereign  princes. 

Among  the  newly  created  princes  and  counts,  there  were 
some  whose  merits  and  demerits  the  Duchess  of  Orleans  set 
forth  in  very  significant  terms.  She  writes,  in  a  letter  dated 
the  I2th  of  October,  1702,  "  Prince  Taxis  !  "  (created  a  prince 
by  Austria  in  1686);  "well,  that  is  a  very  odd  principaUty. 
If  you  want  to  count  that  for  a  prince,  you  may  find  them  by 
dozens !  "  And  in  a  letter  of  the  i8th  of  July,  1718,  "  Of  the 
earldom  of  Wurmbrand"  (created  in  1701)  "I  have  never 
heard  before.  I  suppose  it  must  be  something  upstart,  or 
Austrian." 

Besides  Liechtenstein,  there  were  Wallenstein,  Eggen- 
berg, the  descendant  of  the  Styrian  banker,  and  Cardinal 
Francis  Dietrichstein  ;  moreover,  the  Bohemian  Lobkowitzes, 


THE     NEW     NOBILITY  293 

the  Swabiari  HohenzoUern,*  and  the  Salms  on  the  Rhine, 
created  princes.  Then,  again,  the  princely  dignity  of  the 
German  Empire  was  bestowed  on  ten  or  fifteen  Italian 
families ;  e.g.,  those  of  Este,  Gonzaga,  Caraffa,  Strozzi,  and 
Aldobrandini ;  on  the  Spanish  Count  Cantacroy,  the  descen- 
dant of  Nicholas  Perrenot  Granvella ;  on  the  two  Transyl- 
vanian  princes,  Bethlen  Gabor  and  George  Ragoczy ;  and  on 
the  Polish  noble  family  of  Czartorisky. 

The  seventy  or  eighty,  or  more,  families  to  which  Ferdi- 
nand IL,  after  the  battle  of  the  White  Mountain,  granted 
diplomas  as  counts  of  the  German,  or,  to  use  the  official  title, 
of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire,  were  likewise  not  merely  Ger- 
mans, but  Italians,  Spaniards,  Walloons,  English,  Scotch, 
and  Irish,  and  also  some  Croats.  Fourteen  of  them  received 
the  style  of  ^'  Illustrissimus."  The  list  comprised  the  names  of 
Tilly  (illustrissimus),  Pappenheim  (illustrissimus),  Hatzfeld 
(illustrissimus),  Terzky,  and  Illo ;  of  the  three  upstarts, 
Aldringer,  Götz,  and  Hoik ;  of  the  Italians,  Gallas  and 
Colloredo ;  of  the  Spaniards,  Maradas  and  Verdugo ;  of  the 
Croats,  Isolani  and  Kollonitsch.  Besides  these  men  of  the 
sword,  the  dignity  of  count  was  bestowed  on  men  of  peace  ; 
among  whom  particular  mention  is  due  to  the  diplomatist  of 
the  peace  of  Westphalia,  Trautmannsdorf  (Justly  titled  '*  ilhis- 
trissimtis"),  and  to  the  defenestrated  Bohemians,  Martinitz 
and  Slawata. 

This  new  aristocracy  of  the  German  Empire  was  body 
and  soul  given  to  Austria,  or — as  it  was  then  called  in  the 
language  of  the  court,  and  is  still  called  in  the  language  of 
Prince  Metternich — '*  well  disposed."  These  newly  created 
princes  and  counts  formed  the  nucleus  of  the  new  Catholic 
chain  of  nobles  in  Austria,  which,  having  enriched  itself  with 
the  spoils  of  the  old  one,  succeeded  in  sharing  with  the  Jesuits 
the  helm  of  government.  To  obviate  any  attempt  at  a  new 
rebellion,  this  oligarchy  made  use  of  the  new  Spanish  ex- 
pedients of  "poisoning  and  stabbing."  The  Duchess  of 
Orleans,  in  a  letter  of  the  6th  of  December,  1721,  says  of 

1  Not  to  be  confounded  with  the  Brandenburg,  the  present  royal,  line 
of  the  house, — Translator. 


294  FERDINAND     11. 

them,  "  Without  the  knowledge  of  the  Emperor  they  send  people  into 
the  other  world!  "  The  first  victims  of  this  policy  of  crushing 
any  obnoxious  or  too  powerful,  wealthy,  and  independent 
personage  were  Wallenstein  and  Bethlen  Gabor. 

6. — The  Protestant  partisans,  Mansfeld,  Brnnswick,  &c. 

When  the  reigning  Protestant  princes  abandoned  the 
cause  of  their  brethren  in  faith  among  the  German  people, 
it  was  taken  up  by  partisans,  who — like  that  Sforza  who  from 
condottiere  rose  to  be  a  duke — placed  themselves  at  the  head 
of  armed  bands,  in  order  to  gain  a  principality  at  the  point  of 
the  sword. 

The  first  of  these  bold  partisans  who  tried  to  make  their 
fortune  under  the  banner  of  Protestantism  was  Count  Ernest 
Mansfeld,  a  bastard  of  the  first  Prince  of  Mansfeld,  Peter 
Ernest,  who  died  in  1604,  as  the  Spanish  captain-general  of 
Luxemburg.  The  family  had  their  estates  in  the  Hartz 
mountains,  but  it  is  now  extinct.  Ernest  was  a  man  of  very 
easy  conscience,  perfectly  unscrupulous  with  regard  to  the 
means  for  obtaining  his  ends.  He  was  a  sort  of  brigand  in 
grand  style.  He  gave  the  first  example  of  making  war  with 
soldiers  who  were  fed  by  the  war  alone,  and  who,  living  by 
spoil,  gave  quarter  only  to  those  who  were  able  to  pay  a 
ransom.  It  was  he  who  imprinted  on  the  Thirty  Years'  War 
the  character  of  a  bloody  foray,  in  which  robbery  and  murder 
were  the  main  objects.  Mansfeld  had  served  Frederic,  the 
"  Winter  King,"  in  Bohemia ;  had  taken  Pilsen,  and  long 
kept  it.  For  a  considerable  time  after  the  battle  of  the 
White  Mountain,  he  disputed  Bohemia  with  the  Emperor ; 
who  therefore  repeatedly  tried  to  gain  him  over  by  bribery. 
The  last  attempt  of  the  kind  was  made  through  the  Infanta 
Isabella  from  Brussels.  In  this  instance,  Mansfeld  appa- 
rently came  to  a  full  agreement,  so  that  nothing  was  wanting 
but  his  signature ;  after  which  he  invited  the  imperial  com- 
missioners to  his  table,  and  at  last  introduced  to  them  the 
King  of  the  Bohemians,  who  had  just  then  come  from 
Holland    by   Paris  to   Germersheim,   in    his  own    Rhenish 


COUNT  ERNEST  MANSFELD  295 

Palatinate,  When  bribes  proved  of  no  avail,  a  prize  of 
300,000  crowns  was  set  on  the  head  of  the  obnoxious  bastard, 
whom  they  would  have  so  much  liked  to  employ  on  the 
Papist  side. 

Mansfeld  was  small,  fair,  but  hunchbacked,  and  besides 
disiigured  by  a  hare-lip;  yet  he  was  endowed  with  a  bold, 
enterprising,  indomitable  spirit.  Even  his  enemies  were 
obliged  to  acknowledge  him  to  be  a  great  general.  He  was 
the  strangest  compound  of  an  indefatigable  partisan  and  an 
ease-loving  epicure,  of  a  mercenary  condotticre  and  an  irre- 
sistible party-leader.  Being  the  bastard  of  a  prince,  he  con- 
sidered himself  as  the  equal  of  princes.  In  his  letters  of 
feud  to  the  Bishop  of  Würtzburg  he  quite  artlessly  vowed 
that,  as  true  as  he  was  a  cavalier  of  honour,  he  would 
rage  against  his  lordship's  country  and  people  with  fire  and 
sword ;  and  the  man  was  as  good  as  his  word.  After 
having  quitted  Bohemia,  he  appeared  in  the  Upper  Palatinate 
against  Tilly,  and  in  the  Rhenish  Palatinate  against  the 
Spaniards. 

This  first  Protestant  partisan  was  soon  followed  by 
another,  Christian  of  Brunswick,  administrator  of  Halber- 
stadt, a  younger  brother  of  Frederic  Ulric,  the  reigning 
Duke  of  Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.  Christian  of  Brunswick — 
whom  the  Papist  historian  Wassenberg,  the  author  of  the 
**  German  Florus,"  terms  '*  a  man  born  for  the  ruin  of 
Germany,"  and  *'  the  worst  pestilence  which  ever  rose  from 
the  Dutch  morass  " — was  certainly  even  worse,  if  possible, 
than  Mansfeld.  He  was  at  that  time  in  his  twenty-second 
year,  a  most  handsome  man,  of  a  vigorous  frame,  the  most 
gallant  of  profligates,  rapacious,  but  giving  away  his  spoil 
with  princely  liberality ;  in  short,  he  was  one  of  the  maddest 
adventurers  among  the  most  dashing  "  lions  "  of  the  seven- 
teenth century.  He  began  his  soldier's  career  with  300 
ducats  in  his  purse,  with  200  horse,  and  with  a  glove  sticking 
in  his  hat.  The  glove  was  from  the  lady  for  whom  he  had 
drawn  his  sword,  the  romantic  and  melancholy  Elizabeth 
Stuart,  the  exiled  "  Winter  Queen."  He  had  vowed  to  her, 
at  her  court  at  Rheenen  in  Holland,  that  he  would  return 


296  FERDINAND     II. 

her  this  glove  at  Prague.  Four  months  after  his  quitting 
Holland,  he  had  collected  a  by  no  means  despicable  force. 
The  device  on  his  colours  was,  "  Everything  for  God  and 
for  Her."  He  made  his  appearance  in  Lower  (North-western) 
Germany  and  in  Westphalia  ;  and  it  was  his  plan  to  make 
his  way  through  Hesse,  to  join  Mansfeld  in  the  Palatinate. 
He  began  by  plundering  the  Lower  Saxon  and  Westphalian 
cathedrals  and  chapters.  When  at  Paderborn  he  found  the 
statue  of  St.  Liborius  of  pure  gold,  weighing  eighty  pounds ; 
he  embraced  the  worthy  saint,  thanking  him  for  his  civility 
of  having  waited  for  him.  At  Alünster  he  found  the  Twelve 
Apostles  of  silver ;  and,  reproving  them  for  thus  standing 
idle,  called  out  to  them  to  go  forth  and  preach  to  the 
heathen — for  which  purpose  he  sent  them  to  the  mint. 
On  the  dollars  which  in  1622  were  coined  out  of  them,  his 
bust  is  encircled  by  the  legend,  "  God's  friend  and  the  parsons' 
enemy."  On  the  reverse,  there  is  a  mailed  right  arm  holding 
a  sword  ;  and  the  inscription,  "  Tout  avcc  Dien."  In  the  same 
year,  he  lost  in  the  battle  of  Fleury  his  left  arm — a  circum- 
stance which  the  Papists  did  not  fail  to  herald  forth  as  a 
punishment  of  the  Lord.  He  had  the  limb  amputated  in  the 
presence  of  his  whole  army,  amidst  the  braying  of  trumpets  and 
the  roll  of  kettle-drums ;  and  a  medal  was  struck  to  com- 
memorate the  event,  with  the  legend  : 

"  Let  me  be  maimed,  let  me  be  lame, 
I'll  hate  the  parsons  all  the  same."  ^ 

An  "ingenious  peasant  from  the  banks  of  the  Meuse"  made 
an  artificial  iron  arm  for  him — afterwards  kept  in  the  Wolfen- 
büttel Museum — which  he  was  able  to  move  like  a  natural 
one.  He  could  grasp  and  hold  with  it,  and  it  was  riveted 
with  gold. 

To  these  two  bold  partisans  a  great  number  of  reigning 
petty  princes  and  of  cadets  of  princely  houses  are  to  be  added, 
who,  under  the  banner  of  Protestantism,  wished  to  gain  or  to 
recover  lands.     Their  ranks  comprised  the   Margrave  John 

*  "  Verlier'  ich  gleich  Arm  und  Dein 
Will  ich  doch  rfaffenfeind  sein." 


COUNT     MANSFELD    VISITS     ENGLAND  297 

George  of  Brandenburg-Jägerndorf,  who  had  been  outlawed 
by  the  Emperor,  and  his  principality  in  Silesia  given  to  Prince 
Charles  of  Liechtenstein  ;^  the  reigning  Duke  of  Saxe-Weimar, 
William,  who  wanted  to  recover  the  electoral  dignity  for  the 
Ernestine  line;  his  brother  John  Ernest,  who  was  killed  in 
Hungary  in  1626  ;  the  afterwards  celebrated  Duke  Bernard  of 
Weimar;  Duke  Magnus  of  Würtemberg,  who  was  killed  in 
the  battle  of  Wimpfen  in  1623  ;  and,  lastly,  Margrave  George 
Frederic  of  Baden-Durlach,  who  before  the  battle  of  Wimpfen 
resigned  in  favour  of  his  son,  and  died  in  Geneva  in  1638. 
All  these  princes  carried  on  the  war  for  the  Protestant  cause 
on  their  own  account.  Circumstances  seemed  favourable : 
shortly  after  the  peace  of  Nicholsburg,  in  1622,  Bethlen  Gabor 
had  again  broken  with  the  Emperor,  who  thus  was  threatened 
in  the  rear :  but  the  princes  were  not  able  to  hold  out  against 
Tilly.  It  was  of  no  avail  that  Frederic,  in  1622,  leaving  the 
Hague  under  the  disguise  of  a  merchant,  made  his  appearance 
in  the  Palatinate ;  nor  did  Mansfeld's  victory  over  Tilly  at 
Wisloch  near  Heidelberg  do  any  good.  Tilly  defeated,  in  the 
same  year,  Brunswick  near  Höchst  on  the  Maine ;  and  utterly 
routed  the  Margrave  of  Baden  in  the  battle  of  Wimpfen,  near 
Heilbronn  on  the  Neckar.  These  victories  he  crowned  by 
the  taking  of  the  two  principal  fortresses  of  Heidelberg  and 
Mannheim,  which  completed  the  conquest  of  the  Palatinate. 
With  delight  did  the  papal  nuncio  see  mass  again  performed 
at  Heidelberg,  the  cradle  of  the  celebrated  Calvinist  cate- 
chism. The  magnificent  library  of  the  university  Maximilian 
of  Bavaria  sent  as  a  present  to  the  Vatican,  from  whence  it 
was  recovered  only  in  1815. 

Mansfeld,  after  having  gone  from  Bohemia  to  the  Upper 
Palatinate,  had,  since  1621,  overrun  Alsace  to  relieve  Baden 
and  Würtemberg.  After  the  battle  of  Wimpfen,  he  went  with 
Brunswick  to  the  Netherlands,  where  the  latter  lost  his  arm 
in  the  battle  of  Fleury.  Mansfeld  paid  two  visits  to  England, 
where,  in  1624,  he  was  received  with  the  same  enthusiasm  as 
were  afterwards  Prince  Eugene,  Blücher,  and  Kossuth.  In 
1625   Brunswick  followed  him   to   London.     They  returned 

^  He  died  in  1624,  in  Hungary,  with  Bethlen  Gabor. 


298  FERDINAND     II. 

to  the  continent  with  English  troops ;  but  they  were  not  able 
to  do  much,  although  they  joined  the  King  of  Denmark,  who, 
in  1624,  had  taken  the  war  in  his  own  hands.  Mansfeld,  having 
at  last  been  driven  from  German  soil  by  Wallenstein,  went 
to  Bethlen  Gabor  in  Transylvania,  and  died  near  Zara  in 
Illyria  at  the  age  of  forty-six,  as  a  true  soldier,  attired  in  his 
best  uniform,  and  standing  upright  to  the  last  moment. 
When  death  overtook  him,  he  was  on  his  way  to  Venice, 
where  old  Count  Thurn  was  then  staying,  and  where  he 
intended  to  embark  for  the  third  time  for  England.  Christian 
of  Brunswick  had  died  before  him  in  the  same  year  (1626),  in 
the  castle  of  his  ancestors  at  Wolfenbüttel,  at  the  age  of 
twenty-seven.     His  malady  was  singular — the  tapeworm. 

The  first  act  of  the  great  war  had  closed  in  1623,  by  the 
transferring  of  the  electorate  of  the  Elector  Palatine  to 
Bavaria,  which  was  done  at  the  Princes'  Diet  (Fürstentag) 
at  Ratisbon,  on  the  6th  of  March.  The  Emperor  Ferdinand, 
having  run  into  debt  with  the  Duke  of  Bavaria  for  war 
expenses  to  the  amount  of  13,000,000  florins,  had  mortgaged 
to  him  Upper  Austria  for  that  sum  ;  now,  however,  he  paid 
that  Austrian  debt  by  the  cession  of  German  territory,  the 
Palatinate. 

The  despoiled  Count  Palatine  justly  complained  of  these 
proceedings  of  the  Emperor.  He  especially  referred  to  the 
case  of  Bethlen  Gabor,  which  had  been  quite  similar  to  his 
own,  as  that  prince,  likewise  in  opposition  to  the  Emperor, 
had  usurped  the  royal  crown  of  Hungary,  and  yet  been 
pardoned,  and,  besides,  been  invested  with  the  dignity  of  a 
prince  of  the  Empire,  and  with  the  principalities  of  Ratibor 
and  Oppeln.  Even  the  Spanish  ambassador.  Count  Ognate, 
very  strongly  expressed  his  disapprobation  of  the  measure ; 
he  did  not  even  pay  to  the  new  Elector  the  customary  visit, 
to  congratulate  him  on  his  accession  of  dignity.  The  Spanish 
premier  Olivarez  had  suggested  a  very  different  arrangement : 
"  To  give  to  the  Count  Palatine  an  appanage,  such  as  Charles 
V.  had  granted  to  John  Frederic  of  Saxony,  but  to  confer 
on  his  son  an  eighth  (newly  created)  electorate ;  to  have 
him    brought   up   in  Vienna  as  a   Roman    CathoHc,  and   to 


THE  ADVENT  OF  WALLENSTEIN  299 

marry  him  to  an  imperial  princess."  To  this  a  clause  was 
added  that  a  ninth  electorate  might  be  created  in  favour  of 
Hesse-Cassel,  nine  (as  an  odd  number)  being  preferable  to 
eight. 

The  troops  of  the  League  under  Tilly  remained,  as  hereto- 
fore, stationed  in  Lower  Germany,  although  Mansfeld  and 
Brunswick  had  been  driven  out  of  Westphalia  since  1623. 
This  showed  clearly  the  intention  of  the  Emperor.  The 
bishoprics  of  those  provinces,  which,  having  been  secularised 
in  the  Reformation,  were  "  administered "  by  Protestant 
princes,  were  now  to  be  restored  as  Roman  Catholic  sees ; 
and  Lower  Germany  was  to  be  treated  as  the  southern 
provinces  had  been  before.  Bethlen  Gabor  had,  in  1624, 
made  his  second  peace  at  Vienna  with  the  Emperor. 

It  was  under  these  circumstances  that  Christian  IV.,  king 
of  Denmark — as  Duke  of  Holstein,  a  prince  of  the  Empire — 
placed  himself  at  the  head  of  the  Protestants.  Being  captain- 
general  of  the  circle  of  Lower  Saxony,  he  united  his  forces 
with  those  of  Mansfeld  and  Brunswick.  Bethlen  Gabor,  in 
1626,  came  to  a  third  rupture  with  the  Emperor.  Christian 
likewise  entered  into  an  alliance  with  Holland  and  England, 
and  also  France  promised  subsidies.  Cardinal  Richelieu, 
having  been  placed  at  the  helm  of  the  government  since  1624, 
returned  to  the  old  policy  of  Francis  I.  and  Henry  II.,  who, 
although  persecuting  the  Protestants  of  their  own  country, 
leagued  themselves  with  those  of  the  Empire. 

Until  then  the  war  in  Germany  had  been  conducted 
principally  with  the  forces  of  the  League.  Thie  Emperor 
could  not  wish  that  everything  should  be  done  by  the  house 
of  Bavaria ;  but  he  wanted  the  means  for  equipping  a  large 
army.  Then  a  new  condottiere  after  the  pattern  of  Mansfeld 
came  forth,  offering  to  carry  on  war  on  a  grand  scale,  and  to 
make  it  self-supporting.  This  was  no  other  than  Wallenstein. 
He  became  in  the  second  period  of  the  war  what  Tilly  had 
been  in  the  first. 


300  FERDINAND     II. 

7. — Wallenstein  and  his  plans  for  the  establishment  of  the  absolute 
sovereignty  of  the  Emperor. 

Albert  Wenceslaus  Eusebius  Baron  Waldstein,  or  Wal- 
lenstein, was  descended  from  an  old  Bohemian  family,  the 
ancestors  of  which  may  be  traced  as  far  back  as  the  twelfth 
century.  At  the  time  of  the  Bohemian  King  Ottocar  one 
of  the  ancestors  of  the  Waldsteins  presented  himself  with 
twenty-four  doughty  sons  in  knightly  armour  before  the  King, 
to  accompany  the  monarch  in  his  expedition  against  the  pagan 
Prussians.  This  scene  is  represented  in  a  well-known  picture 
on  a  ceiling  at  the  Waldstein  castle  of  Dux,  near  Töplitz. 
The  name  of  Waldstein,  however,  does  not  occur  in  the 
Bohemian  pubHc  documents  until  the  fourteenth  century.  A 
seal,  appended  to  a  roll  of  the  year  1375,  bears  around  it  the 
legend,  "  Henricus  de  Valstein." 

The  celebrated  General  Wallenstein  was  born  on  the  15th 
of  September,  1583,  at  Herrmanic  on  the  Elbe,  an  estate  of 
his  father.  His  parents  were  Protestants,  belonging  to  the 
community  of  the  Bohemian  brethren.  The  families  also  of 
his  mother,  Marusca  Smirczicky,  and  of  his  grandmother, 
of  the  house  of  Slawata,  were  Utraquists.  But  Wallenstein 
lost  his  mother  as  early  as  1593,  and  his  father  in  1595,  when 
the  boy,  being  in  his  thirteenth  year,  was  placed  by  one  of 
his  uncles,  Albert  Slawata,  a  Protestant,  in  the  school  of  the 
Bohemian  brethren  on  his  estate  of  Koschumberg.  After- 
wards, however,  another  uncle  of  his,  John  von  Ricam,  a 
Papist,  who  was  a  great  friend  of  the  Jesuits,  had  him 
educated  at  the  college  for  young  nobles  which  the  reverend 
fathers  kept  at  Olmiitz;  and  there  Father  Pachta  led  him 
into  the  fold  of  the  Church  of  Rome. 

From  early  childhood  the  lofty  and  grasping  spirit,  as  well 
as  the  harshness  and  stubbornness  of  Wallenstein's  character, 
manifested  themselves.  One  day  when  his  mother  chastised 
him,  a  boy  of  not  more  than  seven  years,  he  called  out,  "  I 
wish  I  were  a  prince,  that  I  might  not  be  flogged  !  "  At 
that  tender  age  already,  whilst  playing  at  soldiers  with  other 
children  of  his  age,  he  always  chose  for  himself  the  part  of 


WALLENSTEIN  S    YOUTH  ßOI 

general,  and  was  fond  of  being  waited  upon  like  a  grand  lord. 
When  his  uncle,  Adam  von  Waldstein,  once  rebuked  him  for 
it,  remarking,  "  Well,  cousin,  you  give  yourself  the  airs  of  a 
prince  !  "  the  boy  gave  the  ready  answer,  "  That  which  is  not 
may  one  day  be."  There  were  many  anecdotes  current  about 
Wallenstein's  haughty,  ambitious  spirit.  Thus  it  was  said 
that  at  the  school  of  Goldberg  he  had  once  dreamed  that 
teachers  and  pupils,  and  even  the  trees,  had  made  obeisance 
to  him,  for  which  his  preceptor  Fechner  had  ridiculed  him. 
At  the  University  of  Altdorf  he  had  been  once  condemned  to 
the  black-hole,  and  as  that  place,  newly  built,  was  to  be 
named  after  its  first  inmate.  Wallenstein  had  pushed  his 
poodle  in  before  him,  on  which  the  black-hole  had  ever  after 
been  called  Poodle.^  And  another  time,  when  he  was  a  page 
at  the  court  of  the  Margrave  of  Burgau,  the  son  of  Ferdinand 
of  Tyrol  and  the  beautiful  Philippina  Welser,  he  had  once 
in  his  ambitious  day-dreams  fallen  from  a  window  in  the 
third  story  of  the  castle  of  Innsbruck,  and  escaped  as  by  a 
miracle.^ 

But  Palacky,  the  historian  of  Bohemia,  has  proved  that 
Wallenstein  never  during  his  youth  resided  either  at  Goldberg 
or  at  Altdorf  or  at  Innsbruck. 

After  leaving  the  college  at  Olmiitz  he  went  on  his  travels, 
by  the  advice  of  Father  Pachta,  his  tutor,  whom  through 
life  he  remembered  as  a  benefactor  to  whom  he  owed  every- 
thing. He  made  the  usual  cavalier's  tour  in  company  with 
a  wealthy  young  Moravian  nobleman,  Adam  Leo  Liceck  of 
Riesenburg ;  and  the  two  visited  together  southern  and 
western  Germany,  and  the  principal  cities  of  Holland, 
England,  France,  and  Italy.  They  were  attended  by  the 
learned  mathematician  and  astrologer  Verdungus,  who  first 
implanted  in  Wallenstein  a  taste  for  astrology.     The  latter 

1  The  point  of  the  joke  is,  that  the  beadle,  among  whose  many  offices 
is  that  of  turnkey  of  the  "  Career  "  (the  black-hole  for  recalcitrant  under- 
graduates), is,  in  university  parlance,  called  Poodle;  so  that  the  culprit, 
while  saving  his  own  name  from  being  misapplied,  turned  the  ridicule  on 
his  gaoler.  This  apocryphal  anecdote  is  alluded  to  in  "  Wallenstein's 
Lager  "  of  Schiller. — Translator. 

2  This  anecdote  also  is  alluded  to  by  Schiller  in  "  Wallenstein's  Tod." 
— Translator. 


302  FERDINAND    II. 

also  stayed  for  some  time  at  Padua,  to  be  initiated  by  Pro- 
fessor Argoli  into  the  occult  sciences,  and  into  the  mysteries  of 
the  Cabala.  After  his  return,  he  entered  the  military  career, 
serving  first  against  the  Turks,  and  afterwards,  under  Dam- 
pierre,  against  the  Venetians.  In  the  last-mentioned  cam- 
paign, he  was  able  to  equip  a  regiment  of  dragoons,  having 
married  an  elderly  widow,  Lucretia  von  Landeck,  who  had 
large  estates  in  Moravia.  This  lady  had  nearly  killed  him 
by  dosing  him  with  a  philtre  ;  she  herself  died  in  1614. 

After  the  campaign  against  Venice,  Wallenstein  was,  in 
1617,  created  by  the  Emperor  Matthias  a  baron  of  Bohemia, 
and  appointed  a  colonel  in  the  imperial  army,  a  member  of 
the  Aulic  council  of  war,  and  a  chamberlain.    At  the  outbreak 
of  the  disturbances,  he  was  already  so  well  known,  and  en- 
joyed such  popularity,  that  the  Bohemians  wanted  to  nominate 
him  their  general.     But  he  remained  faithful  to  the  Emperor, 
and  was  obliged  to  fly  before  Count  Thurn  from  Olmütz  to 
Vienna ;  he   succeeded,  however,  in   saving  the   war-chest, 
containing  upwards  of  90,000  crowns.     Being  now  put  under 
Boucquoy's  command,  he  again  raised  a  regiment  of  cuiras- 
siers for  the  Bohemian  war,  in  which  he  served  as  quarter- 
master-general.     In  the  afternoon  before  the  battle  of  the 
White  Mountain,  Tilly  had  sent  him  to  cover  a  large  foraging 
expedition,  which  kept  him  away  till   the  battle  was  over. 
He  then  served  against   Bethlen  Gabor.     In    1620  he  was 
raised  by  Ferdinand  II.  to  the  rank  of  a  count  of  the  Empire  ; 
and  in  1622,  after  the  peace  of  Nicholsburg,  the  Emperor 
granted  to  him  Friedland,  a  lordship  of  nine  towns  and  fifty- 
seven   castles   and  villages  in  the  north-eastern  districts  of 
Bohemia.      Since  then  Wallenstein  was  generally  styled  the 
Friedländer.     At  last,  in  1623,  he  was  made  a  prince  of  the 
Empire.     His  wealth  was  vast  enough  to  keep  up  his  new 
dignity ;  by  purchasing  at  a  ridiculously  low  price  the  con- 
fiscated property  of  attainted  nobles  and  the  estates  of  emi- 
grants, he  had  become  the  richest  landed  proprietor,  after 
the  Emperor,  in  Bohemia.     The  list  communicated  by  the 
historian  Rieger  of  the  property  which  he  had  thus  acquired, 
and   which    was    afterwards    confiscated,    enumerates   sixty- 


WALLENSTEIN  S    ARMY  303 

seven  estates  of  a  value  of  about  8,000,000  florins  (;^8oo,ooo 
sterling) ;  but  they  were  bought  by  Wallenstein  at  a  much 
lower  figure.  He  carried  on  this  trafBc  of  buying  and  selHng 
estates  on  the  very  largest  scale  ;  and  his  share  in  the  spoil 
of  the  Bohemian  rebels  amounted  to  nearly  a  third  part  of 
the  whole. 

In  the  meanwhile  he  had  formed  a  family  connection  of 
the  highest  importance  for  his  interest  at  the  court  of  Vienna, 
by  his  marriage  with  Isabella  Countess  Harrach,  whose 
father,  Count  Charles  Harrach,  an  imperial  privy  councillor 
and  chamberlain,  enjoyed  very  high  favour  with  Ferdinand  II. 

In  the  spring  of  1625  an  order  from  the  Emperor  was 
issued  to  Wallenstein  to  raise  for  his  Majesty  an  army  of 
about  20,000  men  by  the  side  of  that  of  Tilly.  This  he  de- 
clined to  do ;  but  he  offered  to  enrol  one  of  40,000  or  50,000 
men,  for,  said  he,  an  army  of  that  strength  would  know  how 
to  feed  itself.  He  thereupon  received  a  commission  from 
Vienna  empowering  him  to  raise  that  number ;  at  the  same 
time,  he  was  nominated  generalissimo  of  the  Emperor,  with 
absolute  power  in  his  army,  in  which  he  should  have  the 
right  of  appointing  all  the  officers  himself.  On  this  he  at 
once  established  his  recruiting  stations  in  Bohemia,  Franconia, 
and  Swabia,  and  before  a  few  months  were  past,  his  army  was 
formed,  his  name  having  attracted  not  only  needy  adven- 
turers and  starving  people  out  of  employ,  of  which  certainly 
there  was  no  lack  in  those  hard  times,  but  also  men  of  the 
highest  rank,  who  were  glad  to  serve  as  officers  under  him. 
His  headquarters  were  at  Eger  (Egra)  in  Bohemia,  the  same 
place  where,  nine  years  later,  his  career  was  doomed  to  come 
to  a  bloody  end. 

Wallenstein  was  born  to  be  "a  prince  in  war."  He 
displayed  the  greatest  splendour  and  magnificence,  and  com- 
manded the  homage  of  the  world  by  his  princely  wealth, 
which  he  lavished  on  all  sides  most  profusely  ;  by  his  princely 
luxury,  in  which  he  allowed  everyone  about  him  to  partici- 
pate ;  and  by  a  fanciful  pomp,  which  dazzled  all  those  who 
approached  him. 

Gustavus  Adolphus,  who  did  not  at  all  consider  him  a  great 


304 


FERDINAND     II. 


general,  was  not  far  wrong  in  calling  him  a  madman;  but  the 
fantastic,  adventurous  Friedländer  knew  how  to  bait  the 
strongest  passions  of  his  people,  and  thereby  to  bind  them  to 
him  even  to  the  death.  His  officers,  guests  of  his  own  table, 
led  the  most  splendid  life.  He  never  rewarded  but  in  a 
princely  manner.  He  connived  at  all  the  excesses  of  his 
soldiers,  under  the  sole  condition  of  having  the  strictest 
discipline  kept  up  on  service.  His  camp  was  the  most  joyous 
and  gay  that  a  soldier  could  have  wished.  He  allowed  a 
train  of  servants,  camp-followers,  and  waggoners ;  he  allowed 
a  train  of  women,  of  whom  there  are  said  to  have  been  15,000 
in  the  camp  of  Nuremberg,  but  he  allowed  no  parson.  He 
admitted  into  his  army  freebooters  of  every  political  and 
religious  creed.  Light  cavalry,  troops  of  Croats,  and  Pulks  of 
Cossacks  were  particularly  welcome.  His  keen  eye  discerned 
at  the  first  glance  the  most  able,  whom  he  would  at  once 
raise  from  the  ranks  :  every  private  soldier  had  the  way  to  the 
highest  military  honours  open  before  him.  On  every  occasion 
he  praised  the  soldiers  who  distinguished  themselves  by  their 
bravery ;  every  daring  achievement  was  on  the  spot  rewarded 
by  promotion  and  rich  presents,  the  lowest  sum  which  he  gave 
being  100  crowns.  He  asked  of  the  soldier  but  two  things, 
intrepidity  and  the  most  implicit  obedience.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  severity  of  the  punishment  was  just  as  excessive  as 
the  liberality  of  the  rewards.  Cowardice  was  inexorably 
punished  by  death ;  at  the  least  breach  of  discipline,  the 
general,  whose  word  was  in  place  of  the  sentence  of  a  court- 
martial,  briefly  gave  the  order,  •'  Let  the  brute  be  hanged  !  " 
He  despised  men,  and  accordingly  treated  them  as  mere  tools 
of  his  plans.  When,  previous  to  the  assault  on  his  camp  near 
Nuremberg,  Gustavus  Adolphus  made  him  the  proposition  to 
give  quarter  in  extreme  cases,  he  sent  back  word,  "The  troops 
may  fight  or  rot." 

Even  the  appearance  of  the  general  struck  the  beholder 
with  reverence  and  awe.  A  tall,  thin,  proud  figure,  with 
sallow  countenance  and  stern  features ;  a  lofty,  commanding 
forehead,  with  short  bristling  black  hair ;  small,  black,  fiery 
and  piercing  eyes ;  dark,  mistrustful  looks ;  his  chin  and  lips 


WALLENSTEIN  S  APPEARANCE  305 

covered  with  a  pointed  beard  and  thick  moustachios,  the  ends 
of  which  stood  stiffly  out ;  such  was  the  man  as  we  may  still 
see  him  in  his  portraits.  His  usual  dress  consisted  of  a  buff 
jerkin  and  a  white  doublet,  scarlet  mantle  and  hose,  a  broad 
Spanish  ruff,  boots  of  Cordova  leather  lined  with  fur  on 
account  of  his  gout ;  on  his  hat  he  wore,  like  Tilly,  a  long 
waving  red  plume. 

Whilst  in  the  camp  the  most  riotous  gaiety  reigned  para- 
mount, the  most  profound  stillness  was  enforced  in  his  own 
immediate  neighbourhood.  He  is  said  to  have  once  caused 
a  valet  of  his  to  be  hanged  for  having  awakened  him  without 
express  orders,  and  an  officer  to  be  privately  put  to  death  for 
having  startled  him  by  the  jingling  of  his  spurs.  He  was 
always  plunged  in  thought,  occupied  only  with  himself  and 
his  own  plans  and  projects.  He  was  indefatigable  in  mental 
exertion  and  practical  labour ;  both  in  thought  and  deed  he 
drew  only  from  the  resources  of  his  own  mind  and  his  own 
will,  in  proud  independence  of  every  foreign  influence.  He 
even  disliked  being  looked  at  whilst  receiving  reports  or  giving 
orders ;  and  the  soldiers  were  directed,  when  he  walked 
through  the  rows  of  their  tents,  not  to  appear  to  take  any 
notice  of  him.  The  men  were  struck  with  a  strange  awe 
when  Wallenstein's  tall  thin  figure  glided  along  like  a  ghost ; 
there  was  about  all  his  being  something  mysterious,  solemn, 
and  unearthly.  The  soldiers  were  fully  convinced  that  their 
general  had  a  bond  with  the  powers  of  darkness  ;  that  he 
read  the  future  in  the  stars;  that  he  could  not  bear  to  hear 
the  barking  of  the  dog  nor  the  crowing  of  the  cock  ;  that  he 
was  proof  against  bullet  as  well  as  against  cut  and  stab  ;  and, 
above  all,  that  he  had  charmed  fortune  to  stand  by  his 
colours.  Fortune,  indeed,  which  was  his  deity,  became  that 
of  the  whole  of  his  army. 

Wallenstein  was  a  man  of  the  most  fiery  temper,  but 
outwardly  he  always  showed  himself  cool  and  collected.  His 
orders  were  brief  and  terse.  He  was  very  chary  with  his 
words ;  but,  although  he  spoke  little,  what  he  spoke  was 
full  of  energy  and  to  the  purpose.  Least  of  all  he  spoke 
about  himself;  yet  the  most  ardent  ambition  burnt  quietly 
VOL.  I  20 


306  FERDINAND     II. 

and  silently  within  him.  To  that  passion  he  in  cold  blood 
sacrificed  everything  and  everybody.  George  Zriny,  ban  of 
Croatia,  one  day  brought  to  him  the  head  of  a  Turk  of  high 
station  which  he  had  cut  off  himself.  As  the  ban,  in  pro- 
ducing the  ghastly  trophy,  made  the  remark,  "  This  is  the 
way  in  which  one  ought  to  pursue  the  Emperor's  enemies," 
Wallenstein  answered  with  icy  coldness,  "  I  have  seen  some 
heads  cut  off  before,  but  I  never  cut  off  one  myself"  ;  and 
soon  after,  he  treated  the  ban  at  a  dinner  to  a  poisoned 
radish  of  which  Zriny  died.  This  happened  in  1626.  Wallen- 
stein was  a  perfect  master  of  dissimulation ;  to  which  art, 
and  to  his  rule  of  never  in  any  case  of  importance  commit- 
ting himself  in  writing,  he  owed  most  of  his  influence  and 
his  successes.  To  ensure  victory,  he  made  ample  use  of 
the  expedient  which  in  later  times  Marlborough  and  Prince 
Eugene  employed  so  felicitously — he  kept  on  all  sides  a  host  of 
well-paid  spies.  Wallenstein  was  forty-two  years  old  when  he 
took  the  chief  command  of  the  troops  raised  for  the  Emperor. 
It  was  in  the  autumn  of  1625  that  Wallenstein  set  out 
from  his  headquarters  at  Eger  to  march  against  the  King  of 
Denmark.  He  and  Tilly  carried  on  the  war  each  inde- 
pendently of  the  other.  Tilly  attacked  the  King  on  the 
Weser  in  front.  Wallenstein  hurried  along  the  Elbe  to  attack 
him  in  the  rear.  He  wintered  in  1625  at  Halberstadt,  Tilly 
at  Hameln  on  the  Weser.  In  the  campaign  of  the  following 
year.  Wallenstein  discomfited  Count  Mansfeld  at  the  bridge 
of  Dessau,  and  the  defeated  partisan  was  obliged  to  fly 
through  Brandenburg  and  Silesia  to  Bethlen  Gabor.  When 
the  latter  had  again  come  to  a  rupture  with  the  Emperor, 
Wallenstein  marched  against  him  to  Hungary,  after  which 
he  took  up  his  winter  quarters  at  Prague.  In  the  campaign 
of  1627  he  recovered  Silesia  for  the  Emperor,  and  conquered 
all  the  Danish  possessions  on  the  continent,  besides  Pome- 
rania  and  IMecklenburg,  which  afterwards  became  his  own 
duchy.  In  these  conquered  countries,  and  in  the  marches  of 
Brandenburg,  he  made  his  numerous  and  formidable  army 
take  up  its  winter  quarters  during  the  two  years  of  1627  and 
1628.     His  own  residence  was  at  Güstrow  in  Mecklenburg. 


WALLENSTEIN     "  GENERAL    OF    THE     BALTIC  307 

In  the  year  1626,  whilst  Wallenstein  was  in  Hungary, 
Tilly  defeated  the  King  of  Denmark  in  a  pitched  battle  at 
Lutter,  near  the  Baremberg ;  and  the  conquered  monarch 
had  but  a  very  narrow  escape  from  being  taken  prisoner. 
In  the  same  year,  both  allies  of  Christian  IV.,  Mansfeld  and 
Brunswick,  were  crushed;  and  Wallenstein  obliged  Bethlen 
Gabor  to  make  his  third  peace  with  the  Emperor  at  Leut- 
schau.  Tilly  maintained  his  headquarters  on  the  Weser,  and 
in  162g  Christian  was  obliged  to  conclude  peace  at  Lübeck. 
Things  were  now  placed  again  on  their  old  footing,  and  the 
Emperor  once  more  was  lord  and  master  in  the  Empire. 

Wallenstein  in  the  Danish  war  had  acted  not  only  as  the 
general,  but  also  as  the  banker  of  the  Emperor,  who  again 
showered  rewards  on  his  head.  Ferdinand  granted  to  him,  on 
the  4th  of  January,  1627,  the  title  of  duke.  In  the  same  year 
he  let  him  have  the  duchy  of  Sagan  in  Silesia  and  the  lordship 
of  Priebus  for  the  nominal  price  of  125,000  crowns.  In  1628 
he  met  him  at  the  castle  of  Brandeis  in  Bohemia,  and  be- 
stowed on  him,  in  payment  of  the  3,000,000  florins  which  he 
had  expended  in  the  war  for  his  imperial  master,  the  prin- 
cipality of  Mecklenburg,  an  integral  part  of  the  German 
Empire,  its  dukes,  as  allies  of  the  King  of  Denmark,  having 
been  attainted,  whereby  their  territory  became  forfeited. 
Here,  at  Brandeis,  whilst  waiting  on  the  Emperor  during 
dinner.  Wallenstein  exercised  the  right  of  a  prince  of  the 
Empire  to  appear  with  covered  head  before  the  Emperor. 

On  the  2oth  of  April,  1628,  Wallenstein  was  nominated 
*'  General  of  the  Baltic  and  Oceanic  Seas."  Austria,  de- 
prived by  the  selfish  dynastic  predilections  of  Charles  V.  of 
her  best  coasts,  those  of  the  Netherlands,  now  thought  of 
again  becoming  a  maritime  power,  of  creating  a  navy,  and  of 
giving  a  vigorous  impulse  to  German  commerce.  Many  were 
the  plans  to  effect  this  purpose,  but  the  result  fell  far  short  of 
the  vastness  of  the  conception.  First  of  all,  negotiations  were 
set  on  foot  with  the  Hanseatic  towns  for  the  supply  of  ships ; 
the  Danes  were  to  be  attacked  in  their  isles,  and  the  Emperor 
elected  King  of  Denmark  ;  an  armed  trading  company  was 
to  be  established,  which  was  to  have  the  monopoly  of  the 

20 — 2 


ßoS  FERDINAND     II. 

traffic  with  Spain  and  Italy,  to  the  exclusion  of  the  newly 
risen  maritime  powers  of  Holland  and  England.  Hamburg, 
which,  although  nominally  neutral,  had  for  several  years  pri- 
vately supported  Tilly,  was  to  supplant  Antwerp  as  the  prin- 
cipal emporium  of  the  commerce  of  the  world.  The  imperial 
commissioner,  Count  George  Lewis  Schwartzenberg,  publicly 
announced  to  the  North  German  cities  in  a  brilliant  speech, 
which  he  delivered  in  1627  at  a  meeting  in  Lübeck,  the 
approaching  revival  of  the  old  Hanseatic  League.  This 
bright  hope  remained  unfulfilled.  Not  more  than  three  years 
from  that  time  the  last  Diet  of  that  League  was  held. 

It  was  one  town,  and  not  a  very  large  one,  of  Northern 
Germany  which  then  foiled  the  project  of  establishing  the 
new  maritime  power  of  Austria,  and  prevented  the  General 
of  the  Baltic  and  Oceanic  Seas  from  actually  entering  upon 
his  office.  That  town  was  Stralsund.  Wallenstein  lay  before 
it  from  February  to  August,  1628;  but,  as  both  the  King  of 
Denmark  and  Gustavus  Adolphus  of  Sweden  threw  succour 
into  the  town  from  the  side  by  the  sea.  Wallenstein  was 
obliged  to  raise  the  siege,  after  having  lost  12,000  men  before 
it,  and  after  having  made  the  supercilious  boast  that  he  would 
take  the  town  though  it  were  riveted  with  chains  to  the 
heavens.  The  heroic  defence  of  Stralsund  caused  the  whole 
project  of  intimidating  the  North  of  Europe  by  an  Austrian 
Catholic  maritime  power  to  end  in  smoke.  The  ascendency 
which  Sweden  soon  after  obtained  in  those  seas  made  it 
impossible  at  a  later  period  to  revive  the  plan. 

The  discomfiture  before  Stralsund  undermined  Wallen- 
stein's  position,  in  which  until  then  he  had  commanded  the 
respect  of  friend  and  foe.  The  Emperor  lost  faith  in  his 
general's  invincibility.  The  high  aristocracy  of  princes  now 
became  loud  in  their  remonstrances  against  the  unmeasured 
pomp  and  magnificence  of  the  upstart.  The  whole  of 
Northern  Germany  resounded  with  grievances  at  the  con- 
tributions which  the  general  extorted  from  the  countries 
where  he  had  established  himself.  Up  to  that  time  all,  as 
if  stupefied  by  the  amazing  luck  of  the  man,  had  remained 
silent ;  now,  however,  a  universal  outcry  was  raised  against 


WALLENSTEIN  S     LUXURIOUS     HABITS  309 

the  tyrant  who  was  wallowing  in  luxury  at  the  cost  of  general 
misery.  At  a  time  when  multitudes  were  pining  from  the 
distress  superinduced  by  a  war  of  twelve  years'  duration, 
when  thousands  literally  died  from  starvation,  Wallenstein 
revelled  in  princely  profusion ;  and  his  commanders  and 
officers,  each  in  his  degree,  imitated  his  extravagant  ex- 
ample. Whilst  many  citizens  and  peasants  committed  suicide 
to  escape  from  the  furious  pangs  of  hunger,  there  was  not  in 
Pomerania  a  captain  of  dragoons  belonging  to  Wallenstein's 
army  who  did  not  live  in  much  more  costly  style  than  the 
former  dukes  of  the  country  had  done.  In  Silesia,  where 
Wallenstein  had  seized  all  the  crops  and  stores  of  corn,  his 
soldiers  lived  in  abundance,  whilst  the  inhabitants  were  mad- 
dened by  misery  to  such  a  pitch  that  cases  occurred  of  people 
attacking  their  own  brothers,  and  parents  their  own  children, 
to  kill  them  and  feed  on  them.  The  damage  caused  to  the 
electorate  of  Brandenburg  by  the  quartering  of  Wallenstein's 
troops  on  the  inhabitants  and  by  the  contributions  levied  by 
them,  was  calculated  at  20,000,000  florins,  that  to  Hesse- 
Cassel  at  7,000,000  florins. 

Of  the  manner  in  which  Wallenstein's  troops  behaved  in 
their  quarters  and  on  their  march,  we  have  a  description  by 
a  member  of  the  imperial  family,  Archduke  Leopold  of  Tyrol, 
the  brother  of  Ferdinand  II.  When,  in  1629,  the  20,000 
picked  troops  which  Wallenstein  despatched  to  Italy  for  the 
war  of  the  Mantuan  succession  approached,  in  the  month  of 
May,  the  territory  of  the  Archduke,  the  latter  wrote  to  the 
Emperor :  "  Your  Majesty  cannot  imagine  what  the  conduct 
of  these  people  is  during  their  marches.  I  have  myself 
followed  the  military  career  for  some  years,  and  I  assure 
your  Majesty  that  I  know  quite  well  that  excesses  cannot 
always  be  prevented ;  but  arson,  violence  to  women,  murder, 
cutting  off  ears  and  noses,  smashing  windows  and  stoves,  not  to 
mention  other  tortures  and  outrages  perpetrated  against  the  wretched 
people f  that  is  quite  possible  for  the  officers  to  put  down. 
Your  Majesty  may  believe  me,  your  faithful  brother,  that 
what  I  write  is  even  below  the  mark ;  and  you  surely  will 
give  me  as  much  credence  as  you  will  those  who  have  an  interest 


3IO  FERDINAND     II. 

to  conceal  the  truth  from  you,  and  who  have  filled  their  purses  from 
the  sweat  and  blood  of  the  poor  people.  I  could  mention  to  your 
Majesty  many  high  officers  who,  after  having  been  in  a  very 
poor  condition  only  a  short  while  ago,  are  now  possessed  of 
30,000  or  40,000  florins  ready  money,  and  who  have  not  got 
it  from  the  enemy,  but  most  of  it  from  the  poor  subjects  of 
Catholic  Electors  and  princes.  May  it  please  your  Imperial 
Majesty  only  to  imagine  how  these  people  will  go  on  in  Italy, 
where  they  now  find  all  in  plenty — and  most  of  the  soldiers, 
even  most  of  the  officers,  are  Calvinists  and  Lutherans.  May  God 
help  the  poor  nunneries,  of  which  there  are  great  numbers 
everywhere.  A  good  warning  to  the  Duke  of  Friedland  will 
not  be  amiss." 

The  whole  of  Northern  Germany  mutely  obeyed  Wallen- 
stein's  beck  ;  he  stood  there  like  a  dictator  or  an  autocrat. 
The  most  unaccountable  thing  in  this  unaccountable  man 
was,  that  the  more  the  enemy  dwindled,  the  more  zealously  he 
himself  carried  on  his  levies.  The  army,  which  originally 
mustered  40,000  or  50,000  men,  was  gradually  increased  to 
100,000 ;  and  in  162g,  the  year  before  his  dismissal,  it 
amounted  to  150,000.  With  such  a  force  at  his  command, 
Ferdinand  II.  was  much  more  formidable  than  Charles  V. 
had  been  after  the  battle  of  Mühlberg. 

This  threatening  supremacy  of  the  imperial  power  in 
Germany  now  excited  universal  jealousy  against  Ferdinand, 
just  as  had  been  the  case  against  Charles  V.  A  secret  oppo- 
sition rose  on  all  sides,  comprising  Maximilian  of  Bavaria,  the 
leader  of  the  League ;  the  whole  of  the  princely  aristocracy, 
Papist  as  well  as  Lutheran,  of  the  Empire  ;  the  Jesuits,  and 
the  Pope,  who  supported  all  the  foes  of  Ferdinand  with  quite 
as  much  zeal  and  energy  as  his  predecessor  had  evinced  in 
abetting  the  plans  of  the  Elector  Maurice  and  King  Ferdinand 
against  Charles.  The  soul  of  all  the  plots  directed  against 
the  threatening  supremacy  of  the  Emperor  of  Germany  was 
Cardinal  Richelieu,  the  prime  minister  of  France.  The  war 
of  the  Mantuan  succession  having  broken  out  in  1628,  Riche- 
lieu's plan  was  to  attack  Austria  in  her  most  vulnerable  spot 
— in  Italy.     He  gained  over  Pope  Urban  VIII.,  of  the  house 


Richelieu's   counter-plans  311 

of  Barberini,  and  made  him  enter  into  the  strictest  alliance 
with  France  for  the  carrying  out  of  vast  counter-plans,  which 
certainly  were  conceived  with  masterly  skill,  and  calculated  to 
entrap  the  proud  house  of  Austria,  to  undermine  the  ground 
under  its  feet,  and  to  baffle  its  hopes  of  universal  monarchy. 
Count  KhevenhüUer  has  recorded  the  views  which  Richelieu 
then  set  forth  in  support  of  his  suggestions. 

"  Experience  having  shown  that  the  house  of  Austria  is  a 
beast  {bestia)  of  many  heads,  which,  as  soon  as  you  cut  them 
off,  will  always  grow  again,  a  new  way  ought  to  be  struck  out : 
decision  by  force  of  arms,  for  some  time,  no  longer  be  thought 
of;  and  two  other  means  employed  to  bring  about  the  ruin  of 
the  whole  house — the  Emperor's  piety  and  his  kindness  of  heart. 

"The  Emperor's  piety  might  be  turned  to  his  ruin  by 
instigating  him  to  reclaim  all  the  Church  property  confiscated 
since  the  treaty  of  Passau  in  1552,  whereby  the  Protestant 
princes  would  be  made  his  enemies  for  ever. 

"  His  kindness  of  heart  might  be  made  available  by  touch- 
ing his  conscience,  and  exciting  his  compassion  at  the  outrages 
committed  by  his  soldiers.  A  great  outcry  especially  ought 
to  be  raised  against  the  rapacity  of  Wallenstein.  If  the  Em- 
peror, like  a  compassionate  and  kind  lord  as  he  was,  attended 
to  these  complaints,  Wallenstein's  dismissal  ought  to  be  pro- 
posed. 

"France  then  should  proceed  to  extremities,  and,  when 
the  Emperor  had  forfeited  his  popularity  as  well  as  his  power, 
send  a  large  army  to  Germany;  use  force  where  force  was 
required,  but  where  money  and  negotiations  were  more  to 
the  purpose,  she  should  not  neglect  anything,  nor  make  a 
sparing  use  of  promises  of  religious  liberty — for  the  present. 

"  By  supporting  the  malcontents,  emigrants,  and  enemies 
of  innovation,  the  French  monarch  might  succeed  in  being 
elected  King  of  the  Romans ;  and  then — leaving  to  the  Emperor, 
by  that  time  a  decrepit  old  lord,  the  Ccssarean  title — assume  the  govern- 
ment of  Germany. 

"  Thus  Austria  would  be  lost,  and  what  had  not  been 
obtained  by  force  of  arms  would  be  gained  by  dexterity." 

The  Pope  entered  upon  these  proposals  of  Richelieu,  and 


312  FERDINAND     II. 

the  work  of  entrapping  the  Emperor  began.  The  Holy 
Father,  Cardinal  Richelieu,  and  Father  Lamormain,  the 
Emperor's  Jesuit  confessor,  suggested  to  Ferdinand  that 
even  the  religious  treaties  of  Passau  and  Augsburg  were  null 
and  void,  for  the  simple  reason  of  their  being  concluded 
without  the  consent  of  the  Pope.  Upon  this,  the  Emperor 
issued  the  famous  Edict  of  Restitution  (dated  6th  of  March, 
1629),  in  virtue  of  which  all  that  had  become  Protestant 
since  1552,  that  is  to  say,  since  the  last  seventy-seven  years, 
should  be  made  Catholic  again.  This  ordinance  affected  the 
two  North  German  archbishoprics  of  Magdeburg  and  Bremen, 
numberless  monasteries  and  convents,  and  a  great  many  towns 
and  cities  throughout  the  Empire.  The  only  exception, 
evidently  as  a  temporary  concession,  was  made  in  favour  of 
the  most  powerful  of  the  Protestant  princes,  the  Elector  of 
Saxony,  who  was  left  in  possession  of  the  three  bishoprics 
of  Meissen,  Merseburg,  and  Naumburg,  which  were  inclosed 
in  his  territory.  The  edict  was  strictly  enforced  forthwith. 
The  Protestants  of  Northern  Germany  indeed  declared  that 
they  would  rather  cast  off  their  laws  and  civilised  existence, 
and  reduce  Germany  again  to  the  old  savage  state  of  forest 
life,  than  submit  to  the  edict.  The  armies  of  Wallenstein 
and  of  the  League  compelled  them  to  allow  it  to  be  carried 
out. 

The  Emperor,  who  had  always  been  so  lavish  in  reproach- 
ing the  Protestant  princes  with  their  selfish  spoliation  of  the 
bishoprics,  now  himself  appropriated  a  good  slice  for  the 
benefit  of  his  family.  Ferdinand's  second  son,  Leopold 
William,  had  been  made  bishop  of  Strassburg  and  Passau. 
Immediately  after  the  proclamation  of  the  Edict  of  Restitu- 
tion, he  had  the  archsees  of  Magdeburg  and  Bremen  and  the 
see  of  Halberstadt  conferred  upon  him,  in  addition  to  his 
having  been  before  invested  as  bishop  of  Breslau  and  Olmütz, 
abbot  of  the  rich  Hessian  monastery  of  Hersfeld,  and  grand 
master  of  the  Teutonic  order — an  accumulation  of  not  less 
than  nine  high  dignities  of  the  Church  on  the  head  of  a  youth 
of  fifteen  years  ! 

The  monasteries  were  just  as  arbitrarily  dealt  with  as  the 


THE     EDICT    OF     RESTITUTION  313 

bishoprics.  The  Jesuits  unscrupulously  appropriated  the 
religious  houses  for  their  own  use,  without  heeding  in  the 
least  that  they  had  formerly  belonged  to  the  Benedictines  or 
other  orders. 

In  all  the  imperial  towns  the  Emperor's  soldiery  enforced 
the  restoration  of  the  Popish  worship,  even  in  those  where 
the  Lutheran  had  been  established  long  before  the  treaty 
of  Passau.  This  was  done  especially  at  Augsburg,  that 
obnoxious  city  where  the  Confession  had  been  presented. 

And,  finally,  the  spoliation  extended  to  the  property  of 
laymen.  Whatsoever  nobleman  of  the  Empire  had  served 
the  King  of  Bohemia,  Mansfeld,  Brunswick,  or  the  Danish 
king  had  his  estates  confiscated. 

Under  the  pretext  of  watching  over  the  speedy  carrying 
out  of  the  edict,  the  troops  of  the  Emperor  and  of  the  League 
remained  still  quartered  in  all  the  Protestant  countries,  with 
the  exception  of  Saxony,  and  completely  exhausted  them  by 
forced  contributions.  Every  complaint  was  met  by  super- 
ciliousness, and  even  scorn.  It  was  at  that  time  that  the 
harsh  Habsburg  speech  was  heard,  **  The  Empcrov  wishes  the 
Germans  rather  to  be  beggars  than  rebels  !  " 

All  the  princes  of  Germany — even  of  the  strongholds  of 
the  Protestants,  Saxony,  where  the  great  Elector  Maurice  did 
not  rise  to  life  again,  and  Brandenburg,  where  the  great 
Elector  Frederic  William  had  not  yet  risen — bowed  before 
Ferdinand,  and  acknowledged  the  Edict  of  Restitution. 

Magdeburg,  as  in  the  Smalcalde  war,  was  again  the 
only  city  in  Germany  which  made  head  against  the  full 
weight  of  the  Emperor's  power.  Wallenstein  laid  siege 
to  it,  but,  after  the  lapse  of  twenty-eight  weeks,  he  granted 
to  it  a  capitulation,  just  as  Maurice  had  done  in  his 
time. 

The  Emperor  had  for  some  time  completely  changed  the 
old  system  of  government  in  Germany,  in  a  manner  which 
was  in  perfect  harmony  with  certain  views  and  plans  of 
Wallenstein,  of  which  we  shall  speak  more  at  large  presently. 
Ferdinand  altogether  discontinued  the  old  customary  Diets 
for  the  despatch  of  the  business  of  the  Empire.     The  last 


314 


FERDINAND     II. 


Imperial  Diet  (Reichstag)  had  been  held  under  Matthias. 
Ferdinand  II.  during  the  whole  of  his  reign  did  not  hold  one.  As  to 
the  free  imperial  towns  and  cities,  he  no  longer  summoned 
them  at  all,  transacting  all  the  business  of  the  Empire  only  at 
what  were  called  Electors'  Diets  {Kurfürstentage),  with  the 
Electors  and  princes. 

Now,  however,  arose  the  conflict  between  the  old  princes 
and  the  new  duke.  Sixteen  months  after  the  issuing  of  the 
Edict  of  Restitution,  the  old  princely  aristocracy  of  Germany 
succeeded,  at  the  celebrated  Electors'  Diet  of  Ratisbon,  in 
carrying  out  that  second  coup  d'etat  suggested  by  RicheHeu,  of 
inducing  the  Emperor  to  dismiss  Wallenstein  ;  that  hateful 
upstart,  in  whom — and  not  of  yesterday  only — they,  with  very 
correct  instinct,  had  recognised  their  worst  enemy.  Their 
leader  was  Maximilian  of  Bavaria,  the  head  of  the  League, 
and  Wallenstein's  principal  foe,  and  he  acted  in  unison  with 
France,  the  Pope,  and  the  Jesuits. 

Wallenstein,  from  the  moment  of  his  taking  the  chief  com- 
mand, had  stamped  upon  the  war  a  very  different  character 
from  that  with  which  it  had  been  invested  before.  His  plans 
aimed  at  an  object  quite  distinct  from  the  views  entertained 
by  the  League.  The  latter,  headed  by  MaximiHan  and  Tilly, 
the  tools  of  the  Roman  See  and  of  the  Jesuits,  simply  and 
steadfastly  pursued  the  plan  of  driving  back  the  mass  of  the 
German  Protestants  into  the  fold  of  the  Church  of  Rome. 
The  chiefs  of  this  Papist  alliance  were  fully  aware  that  the 
Protestant  zeal  evinced  by  so  many  German  princes  was 
rooted  much  rather  in  their  keen  appetite  for  the  property  of 
the  Church  than  in  religious  conviction ;  and  that  therefore 
that  zeal  must  needs  considerably  cool  down  as  soon  as  an 
insurmountable  barrier  was  opposed  to  their  covetousness. 
This  barrier  was  now  raised  up  by  the  Edict  of  Restitution, 
which  repaired  the  losses  sustained  by  the  old  Church.  The 
most  powerful  Protestant  princes,  even  those  of  Saxony  and 
Brandenburg,  had  accepted  the  edict;  and,  if  they  should 
retain  some  lingering  antipathy  against  the  old  Church,  one 
might  hope  to  overcome  it  by  holding  out  to  the  younger  sons 
of  those  Protestant  potentates,  who  would  allow  themselves 


WALLENSTEIN  S    GHIBELLINE     PLANS  315 

to  be  converted,  the  bait  of  investiture  with  the  restored 
bishoprics. 

But  Wallenstein's  plans  were  of  a  very  different  descrip- 
tion ;  they  were  decidedly  Ghibelline,  diametrically  opposed  to 
those  of  the  League.  Wallenstein  wanted  to  carry  out  what 
Charles  V.  had  failed  to  accomplish.  Like  him,  he  aimed  at 
the  revival  of  the  old  policy  of  the  Hohenstaufen  Emperors. 
First  of  all,  the  Emperor  was  to  be  made  absolute  ruler  of 
Germany,  as  the  Kings  of  France  and  Spain  were  of  their 
countries ;  and  for  this  purpose  the  aristocratical  constitution 
of  the  Empire,  which  for  four  hundred  years  had  in  a  thousand 
ways  trammelled  the  power  of  its  head,  was  to  be  overthrown. 
Wallenstein  intended  to  force  the  Papist  as  well  as  the 
Protestant  powers  of  Germany  into  unconditional  submission  ; 
and  in  so  doing  to  restore  indeed  the  old  religion,  but  at  the 
same  time  to  reduce  within  reasonable  limits  the  exorbitant 
mass  of  property  possessed  by  the  higher  German  clergy. 

As  soon  as  the  peace  of  Lübeck  was  concluded  with  the 
King  of  Denmark,  public  opinion  so  decidedly  sided  with 
Wallenstein,  that  he  could  venture  openly  to  give  utterance 
to  his  thoughts :  '*  Electors  and  princes  are  no  longer  wanted. 
Now  it  is  time  to  waive  all  ceremony  with  tliem  ;  as  there  is  only  one 
king  in  France  and  in  Spain,  thus  also  in  Germany  the  Emperor 
alone  shall  be  master,"  This  language,  which  grated  sorely  on 
the  ears  of  the  princely  aristocracy  of  Germany,  was  in 
perfect  conformity  with  the  idea  of  a  new  military  nobility, 
which  was  to  be  invested  with  fiefs  taken  from  the  lands 
of  the  attainted  German  princes.  Wallenstein  himself  had 
been  made  Duke  of  Mecklenburg,  and  Liechtenstein  had 
received  the  confiscated  principality  of  Jägerndorf.  Recent 
researches  in  different  archives  have  proved  that  in  the  same 
manner  the  other  Protestant  petty  princes  were  also  to  have 
been  driven  from  their  countries,  and  their  territories  to  be 
parcelled  out  among  the  officers  of  the  Friedländer's  army. 
The  Empire^  thus  remodelled,  was  to  have  been  supported  on  this 
new  military  aristocracy ;  just  as  Napoleon  managed  matters  in 
later  times.  The  lands  which  Wallenstein  took  from  the 
Protestant  princes  he  used  as  a  bait  for  seducing  the  army 


3l6  FERDINAND     II. 

of  the  League  from  its  standard,  and  winning  it  over  to  that 
of  the  Emperor.  Many  officers  of  that  army,  among  them 
even  a  couple  of  generals  in  command,  Count  Matthias  Gallas 
and  Count  Anholt,  had  actually  gone  over  to  the  imperial 
camp.  Of  the  Guelphic  possessions,  three  counties,  which 
had  formerly  belonged  to  Christian,  the  administrator  of 
Halberstadt,  had  been  nominally  sold  to  favourites  of  the 
Emperor;  and, according  to  Wallenstein's  plan,  the  dominions 
of  Duke  Frederic  Ulric  of  Brunswick,  who  was  without  an 
heir,  and  had  been  an  ally  of  the  King  of  Denmark,  were  to 
be  divided  between  Tilly  and  Pappenheim.  Another  plan 
was  to  make  Archduke  Leopold  William  Duke  of  Brunswick. 
Würtemberg  was  intended  for  the  upstart  Prince  Eggenberg 
and  Count  Maximilian  Trautmannsdorf;  Baden  for  Count 
John  Francis  Trautson,  a  friend  of  Ferdinand  IIL  ;  Saxony 
was  to  be  bestowed  on  Duke  Charles  of  Lorraine ;  and  the 
Elector  John  George  to  be  indemnified  for  the  loss  of  his 
hereditary  possessions  by  Jutland  and  Sleswick,  parts  of 
Denmark,  which  kingdom  the  Emperor  would  have  taken  for 
himself  with  a  view  to  the  naval  supremacy  in  the  Baltic. 
The  newly  acquired  Lusatias,  on  the  other  hand,  were  to 
revert  to  Bohemia.  Besides  this  transfer  of  secular  property 
on  a  large  scale,  there  was  a  question  of  secularising  the 
spiritual  principalities.  A  passage  occurs  in  the  diplomatic 
correspondence  of  that  time  between  the  courts  of  Vienna 
and  Madrid,  in  which  it  is  said  that  "  the  German  prince-bishops 
wore  too  long  and  too  ample  cloaks."  Moreover,  a  plan  had  been 
mooted  of  making  the  imperial  cities  and  the  corporate  nobility 
of  the  different  circles  defray  the  long-standing  arrears  of  pay, 
which  were  due  to  the  members  of  the  Chancery  of  the 
Empire  and  to  the  imperial  privy  councillors. 

It  may  easily  be  imagined  that  the  court  of  Vienna  was 
not  much  disposed  to  set  aside  a  man  who  so  far  had  worked 
with  such  wonderful  success  at  the  realisation  of  its  proudest 
and  most  brilliant  scheme — a  universal  monarchy,  with  the 
house  of  Habsburg  for  its  head.  Ferdinand  was,  however, 
in  a  desperate  position  at  the  Ratisbon  Diet  in  June,  1630. 
All  the  princes  there  assembled  joined  to  a  man  in  the  general 


WALLENSTEIN  S     BOLD     REMEDY  317 

outcry  that  the  Emperor  should  grant  peace  to  the  Empire ; 
that  he  should  reduce  his  army,  which  had  grown  beyond  all 
bounds ;  and,  in  fine,  that  he  should  dismiss  from  his  military 
service  the  true  author  of  the  general  misery,  the  enemy  of 
the  German  constitution,  "  the  insupportable  dictator  and 
oppressor  of  princes."  They  at  the  same  time  hinted,  not 
very  indirectly,  that,  if  the  Emperor  would  not  yield,  the 
Leaguers  were  determined  to  unite  with  the  Protestants,  or 
even  with  the  King  of  France.  It  was  very  well  known  in 
Vienna  at  that  time  that  an  army  of  40,000  French  was 
stationed  near  the  German  frontier  ready  to  take  the  field, 
and  that  King  Louis  XIIL  had,  through  the  Capuchin  Friar 
Joseph,  his  envoy  at  Ratisbon,  sent  word  to  Maximilian  of 
Bavaria  that  the  duke  needed  only  to  despatch  a  courier,  and 
the  French  army  would  immediately  cross  the  Rhine  for  the 
protection  of  the  (so-called)  German  liberty. 

Wallenstein,  on  the  other  hand,  proposed  a  remedy,  but  a 
terrible  one.  The  Friedländer  saw  through  all  the  intrigues 
of  the  League,  and,  to  crush  them  with  one  blow,  advised 
the  Emperor  to  do  neither  more  nor  less  than  to  surprise  and 
destroy  all  the  princes  then  present  at  Ratisbon.  Other  plans 
besides  were  at  that  time  hovering  before  his  bold  and  enter- 
prising mind,  if  the  Emperor  could  only  have  been  persuaded 
to  enter  upon  them.  After  having  passed  the  winter  of  1629 
at  Halberstadt,  and  then  visited  his  Bohemian  estates,  Wal- 
lenstein took  up  a  position  in  the  south  of  Germany.  The 
occasion  for  this  step  was  the  rupture  of  Austria  with  France 
in  consequence  of  the  war  of  the  Mantuan  succession,  for 
which  Wallenstein,  as  early  as  in  May,  1629,  had  detached 
from  his  army  a  body  of  20,000  men,  whom  Count  Rombald 
Callalto,  and  under  him  Gallas,  Aldringer,  and  Merode,  had 
led  to  Italy.  Wallenstein  at  first  was  against  this  Italian 
war ;  now,  however,  he  went  so  far  as  even  to  offer  the 
Emperor  his  help  against  the  Pope.  He  apprised  Ferdinand 
of  his  readiness  to  go  to  Italy,  remarking,  at  the  same  time, 
"7^  was  a  hundred  years  since  Rome  had  been  pinndered,  and  its 
wealth  must  now  be  mnch  greater  than  it  was  at  that  time.'"  For 
the  prosecution  of  all  these  plans — to  which  must  be  added 


3l8  FERDINAND    II. 

another,  over  and  over  again  alluded  to  in  his  letters,  the  project  of  at 
last  driving  the  Turks  from  Europe — Wallenstein  had  marched, 
in  the  spring  of  1630,  about  one  hundred  thousand  men  of  his 
army  to  South-western  Germany,  and  stationed  them  from 
the  borders  of  the  bishopric  of  Metz  to  the  river  Hier  in  such 
a  manner  that  Alsace,  Baden,  the  duchy  of  Würtemberg,  and 
the  towns  on  the  Hier  and  Lech,  were  occupied  by  the  Fried- 
lander's  troops.  He  had  established  his  headquarters  in  the 
imperial  city  of  Memmingen,  in  Swabia,  where  he  remained 
from  the  27th  of  June  to  the  2nd  of  October,  1630.  The 
object  for  which  Wallenstein  took  up  this  position  in  Swabia 
is  self-evident ;  but,  if  there  were  any  doubt  about  it,  it  would 
be  completely  dispelled  by  the  evidence  of  the  secret  French 
State  papers,  and  particularly  by  a  report  of  the  Venetian 
ambassador,  present  at  Ratisbon,  to  his  Signory.  It  was 
Wallenstein's  plan  to  throw  one-half  of  this  large  force  into 
France,  to  rouse  the  princes  of  the  blood,  who  were  greatly 
exasperated  against  Richelieu,  as  also  the  Galilean  party,  to 
insurrection  ;  and  thus  to  kindle  for  the  French,  at  their  own 
hearth,  a  fire  which  would  effectually  have  prevented  them 
from  meddling  with  German  affairs.  The  other  half  were  to 
be  employed  on  German  soil :  25,000  men  were  to  pounce 
upon  the  capital  of  Wallenstein's  principal  enemy,  Munich, 
which  is  distant  from  Memmingen  only  three  days'  march : 
with  the  last  25,000  men.  Wallenstein  intended  in  his  own 
person  to  strike  the  chief  blow  ;  to  surprise  at  Ratisbon — 
which  likewise  would  be  reached  by  a  few  days'  march — the 
four  Papist  electors  (of  Mayence,  Cologne,  Treves,  and 
Bavaria),  and  the  other  princes  there  assembled,  and  to 
achieve  one  of  those  bold  deeds  of  blood  which  were  then 
deemed  necessary  for  establishing  absolute  power  against 
an  over-weening  aristocracy,  and  had  been  repeatedly  per- 
petrated, in  Germanic  and  Romanic  states,  since  the  latter  end 
of  the  sixteenth  century.  The  massacre  of  the  Huguenot 
nobility  on  the  night  of  St.  Bartholomew,  in  1572,  was 
nothing  else  but  such  a  stroke. 

Wallenstein  and  his  friends  incessantly  urged  the  Emperor 
to  give — what  alone  was  still  wanting  to  make  him  the  abso- 


I 


wallenstein's   dismissal  319 

lute  ruler  of  Germany — his  consent  to  the  execution  of  these 
military  measures. 

But  the  party,  which  would  not  have  shrunk  from  cele- 
brating a  German  St.  Bartholomew,  nor  from  violence  and 
outrage  against  the  sacred  head  of  the  Church,  did  not  carry 
the  day.  The  victory  fell  to  their  rivals — to  that  party  which, 
as  Khevenhiiller  says,  "  tried  completely  to  prostrate  the 
house  of  Austria  through  the  piety  and  kind-heartedness  of 
the  Emperor,  by  bringing  about,  at  the  hostile  approach  of 
the  Kings  of  France  and  Sweden,  the  dismissal  of  the  army 
and  of  the  general."  The  Emperor  did  not  give  up  the 
princes,  as  Wallenstein  wanted  him  to  do ;  but  he  gave  up 
Wallenstein,  as  the  princes  wanted  him  to  do.  He  did  so 
reluctantly,  and  contrary  to  his  own  conviction,  "  under 
protest  of  being  held  excused  before  God  and  the  world  for  all 
the  misfortune  that  might  arise  from  the  dismissal  of  the 
Duke  of  Friedland."  These  words  of  Khevenhiiller  plainly 
show  who  then  ruled  in  Germany. 

There  is  no  doubt  but  that  the  Pope  and  the  Jesuits  saw 
through  the  Ghibelline  plans  of  Wallenstein.  They  had  for- 
merly been  his  most  zealous  advocates,  and  now  they  joined 
in  the  general  outcry  against  him.  The  papal  nuncio,  Rocci, 
at  last  succeeded  at  Ratisbon  in  gaining  over  the  Emperor. 
In  this  task  he  was  ably  assisted  by  that  greatest  and  most 
subtle  of  all  the  diplomatists  of  the  seventeenth  century,  the 
famous  Capuchin  friar  Joseph,  whom  Richelieu  had  sent  to 
the  Diet  of  Ratisbon,  and  of  whom  his  own  colleague  in  that 
mission,  M.  de  Leon,  said,  "  he  had  no  soul,  but  only  pools 
and  shoals,  on  which  every  one  must  strand  who  entered  into 
negotiations  with  him."  On  the  4th  of  July,  1630,  Ferdinand 
signed  the  warrant  for  the  dismissal  of  Wallenstein.  With 
this  act  he,  as  it  were,  cut  off  his  own  right  hand.  Just  at  the 
most  momentous  crisis,  when  everything  might  have  been 
gained,  the  Emperor  gave  up  everything.  Never  at  any  time 
have  the  allied  aristocratical  and  Papist  parties  in  Germany 
celebrated  a  greater  triumph. 

Count  Werdenberg  and  Baron  Questenberg,  two  old  friends 
of  the  generalissimo,  were  despatched  from  Ratisbon  to  take 


320  FERDINAND     II. 

to  Wallenstein  the  warrant  of  his  dismissal.     They  found  him 
at   his  headquarters   at    Memmingen,    apparently   buried   in 
astrological  studies ;   whereas,  in  reality,  his  mind  was  still 
pondering  over  the  plan  of  surprising  the  princes  at  the  Diet, 
He  received  and  entertained  the  envoys  in  the  most  splendid 
style.   The  conversation  for  a  long  time  turned  only  on  trifling 
matters,  whilst  the  envoys  hesitated  to  come  to  the  point  with 
him,  who  was  still  all-powerful.     But  Wallenstein  was  well 
informed  by  his  cousin  and  brother-in-law,  Maximilian  von 
Waldstein,  of  all  the  intrigues  of  the  princes  against  him.    He 
therefore  broached  the  ticklish  subject  himself.     Taking  some 
papers  from  the  table,  he  said,  "  These  sheets  contain  the 
nativities  of  the  Emperor  and  of  the  Elector  of  Bavaria. 
From  them  you  may  see  yourself  that  I  am  acquainted  with 
your  commission.     The  stars  show  that  the  'Spiritus'  of  the 
Elector  domineers  that  of  the  Emperor,  whom,  therefore,  I 
cannot  blame  for  all  this.     I  am  grieved  that  his  Majesty,  by 
disbanding  his  troops,  throws  away  the  most  precious  jewel  of 
his  crown.     I  am  grieved  that  his  Majesty  has  so  little  taken 
my  part ;   but  I  will  obey."     The  imperial  councillors  now 
acquitted  themselves  of  their  commission,  announcing  to  the 
general  his  dismissal.    Wallenstein,  in  a  letter  to  the  Emperor, 
only  asked  his  Majesty  to  protect  him  in  his  possessions ;  to 
which  the  Emperor,  taking  into  consideration  the  request  of  the 
princes  to  restore  the  Dukes  of  Mecklenburg,  replied  that  he 
would  have  the  matter  inquired  into,  and  that  until  it  was 
decided  W^allenstein  might  betake  himself  to  his  estates  in 
Bohemia.    The  senior  Duke  of  Mecklenburg  afterwards  made 
his   peace  with  the   Emperor  by  paying   to   his   exchequer 
100,000  crowns,  and  to  the  Bishop  of  Vienna  a  sum  which 
enabled  the  prelate  to  build  a  new  palace,  the  Bischofs-hof 
(Bishop's  Mansion),  at  Vienna.    Wallenstein  retired  forthwith 
to  his  duchy  of  Friedland,  of  which  he  had  made  Gitschin  the 
capital.      Both  his  palaces  there  and  at  Prague,  where  he 
alternately  resided,  were  got  up  with  fairy-like  magnificence. 
Wal  Ion  stein's  departure  from  Memmingen  took  place  on  the 
2nd  of  October,  1630. 

A  fortnight  after  the  dismissal  of  Wallenstein,  Mantua  was 


GUSTAVUS    ADOLPHUS  321 

taken  by  assault  by  Collalto.  By  this  conquest  the  Emperor 
became  master  in  Italy,  the  same  as  he  was  in  Germany.  In 
the  peace  of  Chierasco  (1631)  he  obtained  the  right  of  keeping 
a  garrison  at  Mantua,  the  most  important  military  point  of 
the  whole  of  Lombardy.  Hans  von  Kuffstein,  who  in  1628 
had  been  sent  as  imperial  ambassador  to  Constantinople, 
returned  about  the  end  of  162g  with  the  intelligence  of 
Amurath  IV.  having  gone  to  make  war  on  Persia,  and  he 
brought  back  to  the  Emperor  the  letter  of  peace  from  the 
Sultan  ;  moreover,  Bethlen  Gabor,  the  most  dangerous  enemy 
nearer  home,  died  in  162g. 

As  soon  as  favourable  news  arrived  from  Italy,  there  were 
not  less  than  thirty  regiments  disbanded;  the  rest  joined  the  army 
of  the  League  under  Tilly.  The  mimhevs  ivhich  afterwards  flocked 
to  the  colours  of  Gustavns  Adolphis  were  for  a  great  part  composed  of 
those  disbanded  troops  of  the  Emperor.  At  the  Diet  of  Ratisbon, 
which  continued  sitting  until  November,  1630,  the  Protestant 
princes  carried  their  point  of  having  the  Edict  of  Restitution 
suspended  until  a  new  compromise  should  be  come  to.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  Emperor  was  not  able  even  to  procure 
the  election  of  his  son  as  King  of  the  Romans. 

The  dismissal  of  Wallenstein  and  the  suspension  of  the 
Edict  of  Restitution  closed  the  second  act  of  the  Thirty 
Years'  War.  The  Protestant  cause,  however,  appeared  still 
to  be  in  the  greatest  danger  ;  nay,  it  seemed  doubtful,  with 
the  fanaticism  of  Ferdinand,  who  in  his  counter-reformation 
schemes  had  been  so  signally  favoured  by  fortune,  whether 
there  would  be  in  future  any  Protestant  Church  in  Germany 
at  all. 

8. — Gustavus  Adolphus  of  Sweden  and  the  battles  of  Breitenfeld  and 
Liitzen — Wallenstein  generalissimo  "  in  absolutissima  forma" 

On  the  very  day  that  the  Edict  of  Restitution  was  pub- 
lished, the  army  of  Louis  XIII.  of  France  crossed  the  Alps 
near  Susa.  But,  although  the  war  of  the  Mantuan  suc- 
cession, and  the  plan  which  Urban  VIII.  and  Richelieu  had 
formed  for  expelling  the  house  of  Habsburg  from  Italy,  had 
raised  for  a  season  the  hopes  of  the  Protestants,  the  taking 
VOL.  I  21 


322  FERDINAND     II. 

of  Mantua  re-established  Austria's  ascendency.  When  thus 
the  Protestant  cause  seemed  with  rapid  strides  approaching 
utter  ruin,  an  avenger  and  dehverer  arose  in  the  person  of 
the  "  Snow  Majesty,"  as  Gustavus  Adolphus  used  to  be 
called  by  gentlemen  at  Vienna,  who  had  not  then  the  least 
foreboding  of  the  hot  work  which  was  in  store  for  them  from 
that  "  ice-king." 

Gustavus  Adolphus,  the  grandson  of  Gustavus  Vasa,  was 
thirty-six  years  of  age  when  he  determined  to  lead  his  Goths 
across  the  Baltic  to  the  rescue  of  their  German  brethren  in 
faith.  Even  before  Denmark  anticipated  him,  he  had 
thought  of  placing  himself  at  the  head  of  the  German 
Protestants.  In  the  meanwhile  he  had  made  war  on  Poland, 
where  a  Papist  king  of  his  house  was  reigning  who  had  been 
driven  from  the  Swedish  throne,  which,  according  to  the 
fundamental  laws  of  the  realm,  could  only  be  occupied  by  a 
Lutheran  prince.  This  Polish  war  had  matured  the  great 
military  talent  of  Gustavus  Adolphus.  Although  Sweden 
was  a  constitutional  monarchy,  he  had  with  great  energy  and 
consummate  prudence  made  himself  all  but  absolute  king, 
wielding  almost  unHmited  power,  with  a  standing  army  and 
permanent  taxes  ;  and  indeed  he  knew  how  to  keep  the  reins 
of  the  government  with  a  very  tight  hand. 

To  occupy  the  King  of  Sweden  in  Poland,  Ferdinand,  in 
1629,  sent  an  army  under  Field-marshal  Arnim  to  the  help  of 
King  Sigismund  ;  but,  by  Richelieu's  mediation,  Gustavus 
Adolphus  concluded  with  Poland  the  truce  of  Altmark,  in 
which  he  had  Livonia  and  the  coast  of  Prussia  ceded  to  him. 
Now,  therefore,  his  hands  were  unfettered  for  a  war  in 
Germany.  His  ambition  was  to  become  the  champion  and 
hero  of  Protestantism.  In  this  aspiration  he  was  supported 
by  his  unfeigned  piety,  which  caused  him  to  look  with  horror 
on  the  Jesuit  thraldom  with  which  his  German  brethren  in 
the  faith  were  threatened ;  yet  he  also  wished  to  lead  the 
Swedish  nation  to  a  wider  field  of  action  in  the  policy  of 
Europe,  and  to  secure  for  himself  a  prominent  place  in  the 
world's  history.  His  first  and  immediate  care  was  to  prevent 
the  Emperor's  plan  of  regaining  Prussia  and  establishing  in 


CHARACTER  OF  GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS         323 

the  Baltic  a  Catholic  naval  power  to  the  terror  of  the  North. 
He  had  therefore  already  hoisted  his  standard  at  Stralsund, 
which  town  he  forced  permanently  to  submit  to  his  rule,  and 
to  take  in  a  strong  Swedish  garrison.  Here  also  Gustavus 
Adolphus  showed  himself  as  a  born  ruler,  always  using  the 
most  practical  means  for  his  end.  He  was  by  no  means  the 
ideal  hero  which  modern  historians  have  wished  to  represent 
him  ;  Gförer  has  been  the  first  to  place  his  character  in  its 
true  light. 

Gustavus  Adolphus — the  Golden  King,  as  the  German 
Protestants  called  him,  on  account  of  his  yellow  hair  and 
beard  ;  the  Lion  of  the  North,  as  they  more  poetically  styled 
him  in  the  strength  of  their  faith  and  their  hope — was  of 
unusually  high  stature  and  very  powerful  frame,  but  inclined 
to  stoutness,  or  rather  so  corpulent  that  with  growing  years 
he  felt  it  as  an  inconvenience,  and  only  a  very  strong  horse 
was  able  to  carry  him.  His  forehead  was  broad  and  high  ; 
his  nose  aquiline  ;  his  eyes  large,  of  a  bluish-grey  colour,  and 
of  a  good-tempered  expression,  but  he  was  purblind;  his 
carriage  was  proud  and  royal ;  his  manners  noble  and  com- 
manding ;  his  whole  appearance  bearing  the  stamp  of  self- 
reliance  and  frankness,  whilst  the  rich,  mellow  tones  of  his 
voice  called  forth  the  confidence  of  his  hearers.  It  was 
specially  said  in  his  praise,  that  his  own  people  served  him 
with  the  most  devoted  affection ;  and  that,  notwithstanding 
his  strictness  and  earnestness,  he  won  the  hearts  of  everyone 
by  the  singular  sweetness  of  his  temper.  Since  Luther,  no 
one  had  exercised  greater  power  over  the  minds  of  men  than 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  with  whom  we  may  perhaps  in  this 
respect  couple  Henry  IV.  of  France.  Eloquence  was  on  his 
tongue.  He  spoke  five  languages,  Latin,  French,  and  Italian, 
besides  German — the  language  of  his  mother,  a  Holstein 
princess — and  Swedish  ;  his  conversation  was  full  of  elegance 
and  affability.  He  cultivated  the  sciences :  his  favourite 
book  was  the  work  of  Hugo  Grotius  *'  On  War  and  Peace," 
which  he  had  always  with  him,  even  in  the  camp.  From  his 
early  youth,  war  alone  had  any  charm  for  him  ;  he  was  born 
to  be  a  hero  as  well  as  a  ruler.     He  had  also  that  charac- 

21 — 2 


324  FERDINAND     II. 

teristic  of  a  great  man,  that  he  understood  how  to  gather 
around  him  a  circle  of  eminent  supporters  in  war  and  peace. 
We  have  stated  before  that  he  was  sincerely  pious,  acting, 
however,  on  the  maxim  propounded  by  Spinoza  and  Grotius, 
that  everyone  is  to  be  treated  as  of  the  right  faith  who  obeys 
the  laws.  He  used  to  say  that  "  to  prevent  people  from 
going  to  hell  was  the  duty  not  of  the  prince  but  of  the 
preacher."  He  therefore  made  no  difference  between  Pro- 
testant and  Papist. 

But  Gustavus  Adolphus,  if  ever  he  was  as  harmless  as 
the  dove,  was  certainly  also  as  wise  as  the  serpent.  His 
diplomacy  went  apace  with  his  warlike  prowess  ;  he  was  as 
great  a  statesman  as  he  was  a  general.  His  officials  were 
very  handsomely  paid,  and  the  Swedish  cabinet  was  so  re- 
markable for  its  impenetrable  discretion  that  the  French 
ambassadors  constantly  complained  of  never  being  able  to 
find  out  the  real  intentions  of  the  Swedish  diplomacy.  A 
whole  network  of  Swedish  ambassadors  and  spies  was  spread 
over  all  the  European  courts;  there  was  an  envoy  of  the 
King  even  at  Constantinople.  Gustavus  Adolphus  without 
the  least  scruple  used  the  most  effective  expedient  of  diplo- 
macy— bribes.  Through  Christina  Munk,  the  mistress  of 
the  King  of  Denmark,  the  Swedish  resident  at  Copen- 
hagen was  informed  of  everything.  Gustavus  Adolphus 
was  extremely  fond  of  over-reaching  the  foreign  ministers 
and  officers  who  came  to  his  camp  to  negotiate  by  making 
them  drunk,  and  then  worming  out  of  them  their  secrets, 
for  which  purpose  he  generally  employed  General  Sir  Patrick 
Ruthven,  who  was  possessed  of  the  rare  gift  of  remaining 
cool-headed  after  having  imbibed  any  given  quantity  of  wine. 
Gustavus  Adolphus  also  invited,  indiscriminately,  all  the 
officers  of  his  own  army  to  his  table,  to  study  their  character 
and  disposition ;  and  the  petty  trammels  of  etiquette  were 
altogether  proscribed  from  about  him.  He  was  always  kind, 
ever  ready  to  acknowledge  merit  wherever  he  found  it,  and 
averse  to  flattery  under  every  form. 

Such  was  the  prince  who  crossed  the  Baltic  for  the  de- 
fence of  religious  liberty   in   Germany.      At  the   very  time 


GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS  LANDS  AT  USEDOM       325 

when  Wallenstein's  dismissal  was  urged  at  Ratisbon,  on  the 
24th  of  June,  O.S.  (4th  of  July),  1630,  the  eve  of  the  hun- 
dredth anniversary  of  the  presentation  of  the  Augsburg  Con- 
fession, Gustavus  Adolphus  first  stepped  on  German  soil. 

The  King  arrived  with  the  Swedish  fleet  before  the  most 
westward  of  the  three  branches  into  which  the  Oder  divides 
at  its  mouth,  and  disembarked,  amid  a  violent  thunderstorm, 
at  the  island  of  Usedom  near  the  village  of  Peenemünde. 
Before  landing,  he  had  given  orders  to  Colonel  Alexander 
Leslie,  a  Scotsman  who  fought  under  his  banner,  to  set  out 
from  Stralsund  and  drive  the  imperial  garrison  from  the 
island  of  Rügen.  Gustavus  Adolphus  had  with  him  only 
14,500  men,  partly  Swedes  and  Finlanders,  partly  English 
and  Scotch,  and  partly  Germans  and  Livonians ;  but  they 
were  a  host  of  heroes,  they  were  soldiers  as  it  were  from 
another  world,  quite  different  from  the  savage  bands  which 
Germany  had  until  then  seen  with  Mansfeld  and  Brunswick, 
and  with  Tilly  and  Wallenstein.  Among  the  Swedes  there 
was  strict  discipline  and  order ;  the  King  himself  set  the 
example  of  piety;  there  were  prayers  twice  a  day  in  the 
army,  every  battalion  having  its  own  clergyman.  With  this 
army  were  those  officers  who  afterwards  astonished  the  world 
by  their  achievements :  Baner,  Torstensohn,  Wrangel,  Count 
Niels  Brahe,  Gustavus  Horn,  Max  Teufel,  Dodo  Kniphausen, 
Wolf  Henry  Baudissin  ;  and  of  Germans,  the  Rhinegrave 
Otho  Louis. 

The  imperial  force  under  Tilly  was  at  least  twice  as  strong 
as  that  of  the  Swedes ;  besides  which  nearly  all  the  towns  of 
Northern  Germany,  except  those  of  the  electorate  of  Saxony, 
were  garrisoned  by  the  troops  of  the  Emperor,  Gustavus 
Adolphus,  however,  had  the  ranks  of  his  own  army  swelled 
by  the  disbanded  soldiers  of  Wallenstein ;  and,  moreover,  he 
forced  the  imperial  garrisons  of  all  those  towns  which  he  con- 
quered to  serve  under  him.  Most  of  all,  he  relied  on  the 
sympathy  of  the  German  nation,  which  was  manifested  on  all 
sides.  Whenever  he  entered  a  place  there  was  played  from 
the  steeples,  with  sackbuts  and  hautboys,  the  hymn  "  Behold 
the  Saviour  of  mankind ! "  (Nun  kommt  der  Heiden  Heiland). 


326  FERDINAND    II. 

Gustavus  Adolphus  first  tried  to  gain  a  firm  footing  in 
Pomerania  and  Mecklenburg.  In  Pomerania,  where  the  old 
infirm  Torquato  Conti  commanded,  he  took  the  capital  of 
Stettin;  the  duke  having  no  direct  heir,  he  intended  to 
combine  the  country  with  the  Prussian  coastland  and  Livonia, 
and  thus  establish  a  compact  power  on  the  Baltic.  In  Meck- 
lenburg he  called  upon  the  people  to  abandon  Wallenstein 
and  to  return  to  their  allegiance  to  the  old  dukes.  On  the 
13th  of  January  (O.S.),  1631,  he  signed  the  treaty  of  alliance 
with  the  crown  of  France,  concluded  at  Bärwalde  in  the  New 
March.  The  negotiators  were,  on  the  French  side,  Charnace ; 
on  the  Swedish,  Horn  and  the  brothers  John  and  Charles 
Baner.  Richelieu  promised  a  yearly  subsidy  of  400,000 
crowns  towards  the  expenses  of  the  war.  As  a  security,  the 
King  asked  for  seven  hostages,  which  were  to  be  sent  to 
Amsterdam.  He  likewise  demanded  hostages  from  the  other 
powers  which  promised  help  ;  from  England,  Venice,  and  the 
Czar  of  Russia.  The  Dutch  were  the  only  power  which  he 
trusted.  On  the  3rd  of  April,  1631,  Gustavus  Adolphus  took 
Frankfort  on  the  Oder,  which  was  defended  by  Tiefenbach. 
Horn  was  now  despatched  to  Silesia,  whither  Tiefenbach  had 
retired ;  the  King  himself  turned  to  the  Marches.  It  was  his 
first  care  to  secure  the  alliance  of  the  Electors  of  Saxony  and 
Brandenburg.  Both,  however,  hesitated,  and  declined  an 
alliance  with  Sweden  against  the  Emperor,  contenting  them- 
selves with  making  remonstrances  against  the  Edict  of 
Restitution.  The  only  rulers  immediately  proffering  a  resolute 
adherence  to  the  King  who  had  come  to  save  the  cause  of  the 
Protestants  from  ruin,  were  the  Landgravine-regent  Amelia 
of  Hesse,  the  Dukes  William  and  Bernard  of  Saxe-Weimar, 
Duke  George  of  Brunswick-Lüneburg,  and  the  Dukes  Francis 
and  Francis  Albert  of  Saxe-Lauenburg. 

The  irresolution  of  the  two  Electors  of  Saxony  and  of 
Brandenburg  became  the  cause  of  one  of  the  most  terrible 
catastrophes  of  the  terrible  Thirty  Years'  War — the  fall  of 
Magdeburg,  the  bulwark  of  the  Protestant  cause  in  the  north 
of  Germany  ever  since  the  Smalcalde  war.  In  compliance 
with  the  general  outcry  of  the  Papists,  the  devoted  city  was 


SIEGE     AND     TAKING     OF     MAGDEBURG  327 

to  be  made  an  example  of.  Christian  William,  the  brother  of 
the  Elector  Sigismund  of  Brandenburg,  had  been  "  postu- 
lated," as  early  as  1598,  as  administrator  of  the  archbishopric 
of  Magdeburg ;  but  the  Emperor  Ferdinand  had  outlawed 
him.  The  latter,  after  the  passing  of  the  Edict  of  Restitution, 
wanted  to  force  upon  the  chapter  his  own  son,  Leopold 
William,  and  got  the  Pope  to  appoint  him  as  archbishop. 
This  the  chapter  opposed  with  might  and  main,  and  it  was 
their  obstinate  resistance,  for  which  the  Emperor  now  wished 
to  have  his  revenge.  John  George  of  Saxony,  whose  son 
Augustus  had  been  postulated  as  archbishop  in  1628,  re- 
mained an  inactive  spectator. 

Gustavus  Adolphus  had  despatched  to  Magdeburg  one  of 
the  commanders  of  his  forty  German  companies,  a  Hessian 
nobleman,  Dieterich  von  Falkenberg,  whom  the  Landgrave 
Maurice  of  Hesse-Cassel  had  formerly  sent  as  his  envoy  to 
Stockholm.  Falkenberg,  a  very  brave  man,  made  his  way 
into  the  city  in  the  disguise  of  a  sea-captain,  through  the  ten 
thousand  men  of  Pappenheim,  who  had  been  encamped  before 
it  ever  since  the  winter  of  1630.  Scarcely  had  Falkenberg 
taken  the  command  of  the  fortress,  when  Pappenheim,  by  the 
promise  of  a  large  sum,  tried  to  bribe  him  to  surrender  the 
city ;  but  he  replied,  "  If  Pappenheim  (an  apostate  Lutheran) 
is  in  want  of  a  rogue,  he  may  seek  him  within  his  own  bosom." 
On  the  5th  of  April,  1631,  Tilly  arrived  with  thirty  thousand 
men  before  Magdeburg,  and  took  within  four  weeks  all  the 
outlying  works — some  of  the  forts  were  called  "  Dare  Tilly," 
"Dare  Pappenheim,"  and  "The  Succour" — and  also  the 
works  on  the  islets  of  the  Elbe.  On  the  iSth  of  May,  Tilly 
sent  in  a  trumpeter,  summoning  the  city  to  surrender ;  on  the 
igth,  the  cannonade  was  stopped,  Tilly  even  causing  the 
pieces  from  the  Sudenburg  battery  to  be  withdrawn.  He  had 
been  apprised  that  the  King  of  Sweden  was  standing  near 
Zerbst ;  the  people  of  Magdeburg  were  likewise  aware  of  this 
fact,  and  for  this  reason  Falkenberg  detained  Tilly's  trumpeter 
until  the  morning  of  the  20th.  In  the  night  of  the  19th,  Tilly 
held  a  council  of  war ;  he  wished  to  raise  the  siege,  but 
Pappenheim's  advice  prevailed,  to  take  the  city  by  a  general 


328  FERDINAND     II. 

assault,  although  no  breach  had  as  yet  been  effected. 
Pappenheim  had  ascertained  that  the  citizens  of  Magdeburg 
kept  very  good  watch  during  the  night,  but  that  at  five  in  the 
morning  they  left  their  posts  to  go  to  sleep.  Five  o'clock 
therefore  was  appointed  as  the  hour  at  which  the  attack 
should  be  attempted.  Falkenberg  had  betaken  himself  to  the 
town  hall  as  early  as  four  in  the  morning,  to  despatch  Tilly's 
trumpeter ;  the  magistracy  were  assembled,  and  against  their 
opposition  he  carried  his  own  opinion,  which  was  to  reject 
Tilly's  proposal  of  a  capitulation.  Whilst  the  trumpeter  with 
his  answer  was  leaving  by  the  gate  on  one  side,  Pappenheim 
had  scaled  the  wall  on  the  other.  On  his  own  responsibility, 
without  order  from  Tilly,  who  had  again  hesitated  and  once 
more  assembled  his  officers  in  a  council  of  war,  Pappenheim 
had  fired  the  alarm-gun,  scaled  the  ramparts  on  the  side  of 
the  "New  Town"  (Neustadt)  at  the  head  of  some  dismounted 
dragoons,  and  planted  on  the  top  the  imperial  banner. 
Falkenberg,  returning  from  the  town  hall,  pulled  it  down 
again  ;  but  he  was  laid  low  by  a  bullet.  Now  Pappenheim 
was  no  longer  to  be  stopped  ;  he  led  four  regiments  in  suc- 
cession on  the  wall,  and  briskly  attacked  the  administrator 
of  Magdeburg,  Christian  William,  in  the  rear,  taking  him 
prisoner  with  his  own  hand.  The  imperialists  then  entered 
the  city  in  close  ranks ;  in  vain  the  citizens  made  a  desperate 
defence  in  the  streets  and  from  the  windows  ;  at  nine  o'clock 
already,  the  old  cry  of  victory  of  the  German  lansquenets 
"  All  won  !  All  won  !  "  resounded  on  all  sides.  It  was 
Pappenheim  who  lit  the  torch  of  the  incendiary  for  the 
destruction  of  the  doomed  city.  From  the  very  first,  he  set 
fire  to  some  houses  in  order  to  hunt  out  the  enemy  ;  a  hurri- 
cane which  suddenly  rose  fanned  the  flame  into  a  general 
conflagration  ;  and  then  the  imperial  troops,  angry  at  being 
baulked  by  the  fire  of  their  plunder,  killed  all  that  came  in 
their  way.  At  ten  in  the  evening  the  whole  city  was  burnt 
down,  with  the  exception  of  the  cathedral,  the  Catholic  con- 
vent of  Our  Lady,  and  some  fishers'  huts  near  the  Elbe. 
Tilly,  greatly  provoked  by  Pappenheim's  arbitrary  wilfulness, 
did   not   enter   the   city  until   some  time   after   ten.     Some 


THE     "MAGDEBURG     WEDDING"  329 

officers  of  the  League,  revolted  at  the  horrors  committed  by 
the  furious  bands  of  the  Croats,  Hungarians,  and  Walloons — 
who  pounced  upon  the  defenceless  inhabitants  like  a  pack  of 
hell-hounds — implored  the  general  that  he  would  check  the 
rapine  and  bloodshed,  and  have  the  soldiers  called  off  by  the 
sound  of  drums  and  trumpets.  But  Tilly,  on  his  grey  pony, 
sternly  answered,  "  Three  hours'  plundering  is  the  shortest 
rule  of  war.  The  soldier  must  have  something  for  his  toil 
and  trouble.  What  would  Pappenheim  say  ?  Come  again 
in  an  hour  and  I'll  see  then  what  I  can  do."  Pappenheim 
wrote  to  Munich  on  the  21st  of  May:  *' I  think  that  more 
than  20,000  men  have  perished ;  and  certainly,  since  the 
destruction  of  Jerusalem,  no  more  awful  work  and  judgment 
of  the  Lord  has  been  seen.  All  our  soldiers  have  enriched  them- 
selves." In  a  later  letter,  written  to  Vienna,  he  says,  with 
very  questionable  gallantry,  "  Nothing  has  been  wanting  to 
me  and  my  brave  companions  in  arms  but  that  your  Majesty  and 
your  imperial  ladies  had  been  spectators  of  this  wonderful  victory." 

The  imperial  soldiery  called  it  the  Magdeburg  Wedding^ 
and  it  certainly  was  a  sort  of  German  St.  Bartholomew ;  of 
the  35,000  inhabitants  of  Magdeburg,  about  5,000  only  were 
preserved,  1,000  of  them  in  the  cathedral.  To  the  latter, 
Tilly,  at  his  solemn  entry  on  the  24th,  granted  a  pardon  and 
fed  them,  after  their  having  passed  three  days  and  two  nights 
in  continual  fear  of  death.  On  the  25th  of  May  mass  was 
read  and  the  Te  Deum  chanted  in  the  cathedral.  The 
imperial  soldiery  celebrated  the  victory  in  their  own  way  by 
the  doggerel : 

*'  O  Magdeburg,  with  maiden  pride, 
To  the  Emp'ror  thou  'st  the  dance  denied  ; 
With  the  lansquenet  thou  dancest  to-night. 
Thou  haughty  maid,  and  serves  thee  right."  8 

From  Magdeburg  Tilly  marched,  in  June,  1631,  by  the 
Harz  Mountains — where  the  peasants  killed  a  great  number 

The  St.  Bartholomew  is  generally  called  in  German  "The  bloody 
wedding  of  Paris." — Translator. 

2  "  Magdeburg,  du  stolze  Magd, 

Hast  dem  Kaiser  den  Tanz  versagt ; 
Jetzt  tanze  mit  dem  alten  Knecht, 
Geschieht  dir  eben  recht." 


330  FERDINAND     II. 

of  his  people — to  Thuringia,  against  Saxe-Weimar  ;  and  from 
thence  by  Erfurt  to  Mühlhausen.  He  wanted  to  wreak  his 
revenge  on  the  Landgravine  of  Hesse-Cassel ;  but  Gustavus 
Adolphus  soon  compelled  him  to  return  to  the  Elbe  to  the 
support  of  Pappenheim. 

Gustavus  Adolphus — who  could  not  well  undertake 
anything  for  the  relief  of  Magdeburg  before  Saxony  and 
Brandenburg  had  declared  for  him,  and  who  in  a  special 
pamphlet  had  tried  to  cast  all  the  blame  on  the  two  Electors 
— at  last,  after  the  fall  of  Magdeburg,  took  a  decisive  step 
against  the  irresolute  Elector  George  William  of  Branden- 
burg. He  advanced  to  Berlin,  and  before  its  gates,  on  the 
nth  of  June,  demanded  a  positive  answer  whether  there 
should  be  peace  or  war  between  him  and  the  Elector.  George 
William  was  his  brother-in-law,  but  allowed  himself  to  be 
completely  ruled  by  his  minister  Count  Adam  Schwartzen- 
berg,  a  Roman  Catholic,  and  a  stout  partisan  of  Austria,  who 
besides  was  in  the  pay  of  the  Jesuits.  The  Elector,  afraid 
of  the  Emperor,  and  trembling  at  the  very  idea  of  losing  his 
country,  wished  to  remain  neutral  and  to  temporise.  He  had 
been  heard  to  say,  "  What  is  the  common  cause  to  me  if  I  am  to 
lose  all  my  reputation,  honour,  and  fortune  ?  The  Emperor  has  a  son, 
and  so  have  I ;  if  the  Emperor  and  his  son  remain  Emperors,  I  and 
my  son  will  remain  Electors  also."  Now,  however,  he  was  obliged 
to  come  out  to  Köpenick  to  his  brother-in-law,  whom,  in  the 
greatest  fright,  he  asked  only  for  a  short  respite  to  consult 
with  his  councillors.  In  the  meanwhile  Gustavus  conversed 
with  the  Brandenburg  princesses.  The  Elector,  at  the  insti- 
gation of  Schwarzenberg,  wished  on  his  return  to  protest  once 
more ;  but  Gustavus  simply  left  him  the  choice  between 
signing  the  alliance  or  being  treated  as  an  enemy.  Then  at 
last  George  William  signed,  and  immediately  after  drove 
back  in  all  haste  to  Berlin.  Gustavus  amused  himself  with 
frightening  him  a  little  more  by  causing  all  the  cannon  to 
fire  a  feu  de  Joie  in  celebration  of  the  concluded  alliance. 
The  Swedes  then  occupied  Berlin  and  the  fortresses  of 
Spandau  and  Ciistrin,  which  secured  to  the  King  a  base  of 
operations. 


SEVEN    THOUSAND    SCOTS    LAND    IN     POMERANIA         33I 

He  was  now  in  the  heyday  of  his  fortune ;  public  opinion 
everywhere  was  in  his  favour.  About  this  time  the  Marquis 
of  Hamilton  brought  to  him  7,000  Scots,  who  disembarked 
on  the  coast  of  Pomerania.  He  now  crossed  the  Elbe  near 
Tangermünde,  and  on  the  ist  of  July  pitched  his  camp  in 
a  position  of  extraordinary  strength  near  Werben  in  the 
Altmark,  where  the  Havel  joins  the  Elbe.  Tilly,  who  until 
then  had  had  his  headquarters  at  Mühlhausen,  marched 
against  him  about  the  end  of  July,  but  was  not  able  to  induce 
him  to  accept  battle.  For  want  of  provisions  Tilly  now  led 
his  army  by  Magdeburg  to  Eisleben ;  there  he  was  joined  by 
Count  Egon  of  Fürstenberg  with  25,000  imperialist  veterans. 
His  army  now  amounted  to  upwards  of  50,000  men.  Leaving 
part  of  it  under  John  Aldringer  near  Erfurt,  and  under  Otho 
Henry  Count  Fugger^  in  Hesse,  he,  without  any  previous  declara- 
tion of  war,  entered  the  electorate  of  Saxony,  and  appeared  on 
the  13th  of  September  before  the  gates  of  Leipzig.  This 
invasion  of  Saxony  caused  great  annoyance  in  Vienna  and 
Munich,  as  it  had  been  the  intention  not  to  attack  the 
Elector  of  Saxony.  John  George,  after  having  so  long 
wavered,  now  threw  himself  into  the  arms  of  the  Swedes; 
concluding  on  the  nth  of  September,  at  Coswig,  an  alliance 
with  Gustavus  Adolphus,  after  having  marched  with  his  army 
of  about  20,000  men  to  Torgau.  Gustavus  joined  with  the 
Elector  on  the  15th  of  September  near  Düben,  between 
Torgau  and  Leipzig;  and  on  the  same  day  the  latter  city 
capitulated  to  Tilly. 

On  those  fields  in  the  heart  of  Germany,  where  her  fate 
has  at  different  times  been  decided  in  bloody  combat,  it  was 
now  to  be  shown  whether  old  Tilly,  who  until  then  could 
scarcely  be  said  to  have  been  conquered,  would  be  able  to 
hold  his  own  also  against  the  young  hero  Gustavus  Adolphus. 
The  two  armies  were  equal  in  numbers,  each  amounting  to 
about  40,000  men.  But  Gustavus  Adolphus,  notwithstanding 
this  numerical  equality,  was  the  stronger  of  the  two.     Tilly 

1  This  nobleman  is  remarkable  for  having  been  the  father,  by  one  wife, 
of  no  less  than  eighteen  children — nine  sons  and  nine  daughters — all  of 
them  born  during  the  war,  from  1622  to  1639,  in  successive  eighteen  years. 


332  FERDINAND    II. 

himself  had  three  months  before  told  Pappenheim  in  plain 
words  that  he  was  no  longer  at  liberty  to  turn  to  the  right 
or  the  left  as  he  pleased,  but  was  obliged  to  follow  the  move- 
ments of  the  enemy.  Gustavus  Adolphus  had  the  superiority 
in  strategy,  but  he  likewise  had  it  in  tactics,  which  had  been 
remodelled  by  him  after  a  new  system  that  gained  him  the 
victory.  His  Swedes,  in  their  easy  blue  uniforms,  without 
any  cuirasses  and  armlets,  moved  much  more  rapidly  than 
the  imperial  troops,  who  with  their  yellow  dress  wore  armour, 
or  at  least  cuirasses,  greaves,  and  helmets ;  the  Swedish  pike- 
men  carried  weapons  only  eleven  feet  long,  the  imperiahsts 
much  longer  lances ;  the  Swedish  musketeers  also  fired  much 
more  briskly  with  their  lighter  matchlocks,  which  did  not 
require  to  be  supported  on  a  fork  like  those  of  their  enemies. 
On  the  same  principle,  Gustavus  chiefly  employed  light 
cavalry — dragoons  wearing  hats  and  armed  with  carbines  ; 
moreover,  his  field  artillery  was  of  very  light  calibre :  he  had 
in  the  battle  of  Breitenfeld  one  hundred,  Tilly  not  more  than 
thirty  guns. 

The  night  preceding  the  battle  of  Breitenfeld  ^  the  King  of 
Sweden  passed  at  the  village  of  Klein-Wölkau,  three  leagues 
to  the  north  of  Leipzig ;  not,  however,  under  a  roof,  but  in 
his  carriage,  attended  by  the  generals  of  his  staff,  Baner, 
Horn,  and  Teufel.  During  a  short  slumber  he  dreamed  that 
he  had  wrestled  with  Tilly,  and  at  last  got  the  better  of  him. 
Tilly  had  his  headquarters  that  night  at  Leipzig,  in  a  remote 
quarter  of  the  town,  and  next  morning  became  aware  of  its 
being  the  house  of  the  gravedigger,  decorated  with  ghastly 
pyramids  of  skulls  and  raw-bones.  A  gloomy  foreboding  then 
seized  him,  even  Pappenheim  stood  with  blanched  cheek. 
At  nine  in  the  morning  of  the  day  of  battle,  17th  of  Sep- 
tember, 1 63 1,  Tilly  sent  Pappenheim  with  2,000  cuirassiers 
against  the  Swedes  and  Saxons,  merely  to  reconnoitre  their 
positions.  But  the  hot-brained,  dashing  cavalry  leader  at 
once  engaged  in  a  fight,  and  Tilly,  to  save  him,  had  to  send 
2,000  cuirassiers  after  him,  and  was  at  last  obliged  to  deploy 

1  The  battle  is  called  by  both  names,  Breitenfeld  and  Leipzig ;  some 
old  chronicles  mention  it  as  the  battle  of  I3adelwitz. — Translator. 


BATTLE     OF     LEIPZIG  333 

the  whole  of  his  army,  whereas  his  first  intention  had  been  to 
wait  for  the  divisions  of  Aldringer  and  Fugger,  and  with 
them  to  take  a  position  behind  Leipzig,  where  he  could  never 
have  been  attacked.  Tilly  had  been  apprised  of  the  junction 
of  the  Elector  of  Saxony  with  Gustavus  Adolphus  ;  Pappen- 
heim, however,  stoutly  refused  to  believe  in  it,  and  urged 
Tilly  "  not  to  lose  such  an  excellent  opportunity,  or  he  would 
never  be  able  to  answer  for  it  before  God,  the  Emperor,  or 
the  Elector  of  Bavaria."  When  Pappenheim  sent  to  ask  for 
the  succour  of  2,000  more  cuirassiers,  Tilly  raised  his  clasped 
hands  in  despair,  and  called  out,  "  That  man  will  make  me 
lose  my  honour  and  reputation,  and  the  Emperor  his  country 
and  his  people." 

To  cover  the  retreat  of  that  splendid  body  of  cavalry, 
Tilly  now  arrayed  his  forces  in  order  of  battle  between  Brei- 
tenfeld and  Seehausen,  one  league  and  a  half  to  the  north  of 
Leipzig.  His  people  wore  white  favours  on  their  helmets 
and  hats,  and  white  badges  round  their  right  arm.  Their 
battle-cry  was  "  Jesu  Maria ;  "  that  of  the  Swedes,  "  God 
with  us  1  "  Tilly,  again,  was  decked  out  in  a  very  strange 
costume,  a  green  silk  gown  and  a  cap  with  variegated  plumes ; 
he  was,  as  usual,  mounted  on  his  grey  pony.  Gustavus 
Adolphus  wore  a  buff  jerkin,  a  coat  of  bluish  grey,  and  a 
white  hat  with  a  green  plume.  He  knelt  down,  and,  as  was 
his  custom,  said  a  prayer.  He  then  rode  along  the  line  of 
battle,  addressed  his  soldiers,  and  despatched  a  trumpeter 
with  a  note  to  Tilly,  according  to  old  usage,  to  challenge 
him  to  combat.  Tilly  sent  back  word  that  he  always  felt 
honoured  in  meeting  the  King's  wishes. 

It  was  already  midday  when  the  imperialists  and  Swedes 
approached  within  range  of  fire  of  each  other.  The  Im- 
perialists opened  with  three  shots  the  cannonade,  which 
continued  until  two.  Tilly's  heavy  artillery  was  pitched  on 
a  hill  near  Seehausen.  The  ranks  of  the  imperiahsts  being 
deeper  than  those  of  the  Swedes,  they  suffered  more  from 
the  fire  of  their  enemy  than  the  Swedes  did  from  theirs. 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  to  deprive  the  hostile  army  of  the  ad- 
vantage of  the  hot  sun  of  September,  which  shone  full  into 


334 


FERDINAND     II. 


the  face  of  the  Swedes,  and  of  the  wind,  which  drove  the 
smoke  and  dust  straight  down  upon  them,  wheeled  more  and 
more  round  towards  the  north.  Then  Pappenheim  burst 
forth  to  ride  over  the  right  wing  of  the  Swedes  commanded 
by  Baner ;  but  the  companies  of  musketeers  placed  between 
the  squadrons  of  the  Swedish  cavalry  repelled  his  attacks 
seven  times  in  succession.  Tilly  tried  to  make  a  diversion 
in  his  favour  by  attacking  the  centre  of  the  Swedes,  where 
Teufel  commanded ;  but  he  too  was  driven  back  by  the 
galling  fire  of  the  Swedish  light  artillery.  Teufel,  on  the 
other  hand,  paid  for  his  success  with  his  life.  Thereupon 
Tilly  gave  orders  to  attack  the  left  wing  of  the  enemy,  formed 
by  the  Saxon  troops  under  Arnim,  who  was  opposed  by 
Count  Fürstenberg.  The  Saxons  did  not  make  a  stand. 
Their  Elector  himself  fled  from  the  field,  pursued  by  the 
Croats.  Remembering  perhaps  the  terrible  fate  of  his  an- 
cestor John  Frederic  after  the  battle  of  Mühlberg,  he  did 
not  dare  to  stop  and  take  breath  until  he  reached  Eulen- 
burg,  several  leagues  distant  from  the  battlefield.  Arnim 
had  retired  to  Gustavus  Adolphus. 

The  time  had  now  arrived  for  the  Swedish  king  to  display 
all  his  military  genius,  and  to  give  a  brilliant  proof  of  the 
superiority  of  his  light  infantry.  He  made  front  against 
the  advancing  columns  of  the  imperialists ;  then,  quickly 
turning  with  the  head  of  his  own  column  towards  the  hills 
where  Tilly's  artillery  was  placed,  he  took  it,  and  directed  the 
enemy's  own  guns  against  him.  This  manoeuvre  was  de- 
cisive. It  was  now  seven  in  the  evening.  The  imperialist 
cavalry,  driven  from  the  field,  left  the  infantry  in  the  lurch. 
Only  five  regiments  of  Walloons,  fighting  in  close  ranks,  and 
neither  giving  nor  accepting  quarter,  cut  their  way  through 
with  great  difficulty  under  cover  of  the  night,  carrying  be- 
tween their  ranks  "  their  old  father  Tilly,"  as  they  called 
him.  Tilly  himself  was  in  the  greatest  danger.  The 
Walloons  pressed  round  him,  defending  him  with  their 
pikes.  He  gazed  fixedly  before  him  with  his  eyes  full  of 
tears.  He  had  been  grazed  by  three  balls.  The  Swedes 
knew  very  well  who  he  was,  and  they  wished  to  take  him 


THE     SWEDES     CAPTURE    THE     IMPERIAL    CAMP  335 

prisoner.  A  captain  of  cuirassiers  of  the  regiment  of  the 
Rhinegrave,  called  from  his  gigantic  stature  "  Long  Fritz," 
closed  with  him,  seized  him  by  the  neck,  and,  knocking  him 
with  the  butt-end  of  his  carbine,  called  upon  him  to  accept 
quarter,  when  Duke  Rudolph  of  Saxe-Lauenburg  at  the  right 
moment  saved  the  old  general  by  shooting  Long  Fritz  through 
the  head  from  ear  to  ear.  Of  5,200  Walloons  scarcely  900 
escaped  with  their  lives. 

The  imperialists  retired  to  the  Weser,  to  the  bishopric 
of  Paderborn.  Here  Tilly  left  a  division  under  Count  Grons- 
feld  behind  him  ;  Pappenheim  went  to  Cologne,  and  Tilly 
proceeded  to  Hesse,  where  he  was  joined  by  Aldringer  and 
Fugger. 

The  Swedes  captured  the  whole  imperial  camp,  which 
contained  great  wealth ;  so  that  every  soldier  of  the  King 
had  at  least  ten  ducats  for  his  share.  They,  moreover, 
captured  all  the  artillery,  twenty-eight  guns  of  heavy  calibre, 
and  nearly  a  hundred  stand  of  colours.  Tilly  lost  7,000 
dead,  and  5,000  were  taken  prisoners.  The  King  slept  on 
the  battlefield  near  a  watch-fire.  The  battle  of  Breitenfeld 
gave  to  Sweden  the  ascendency  in  Germany  for  three  years, 
until  the  battle  of  Nördlingen. 

People  at  Vienna  were  at  once  changed  as  by  magic. 
The  court  parasites,  the  ladies,  the  Jesuits  and  Capuchins, 
with  Father  Lamormain  at  their  head,  no  longer  bragged  of 
driving  "  the  new  pretty  little  dear  of  an  enemy "  (das  neue 
Feinderl)  —  as,  in  the  genuine  Vienna  slang,  they  called 
Gustavus — with  a  birch-rod  home  over  the  Baltic;  nor  of 
their  certain  hope  of  seeing  the  Snow  King  melt  as  soon  as 
he  came  further  south.  With  the  victory  of  Leipzig  fortune 
at  once  turned  completely  in  favour  of  the  Protestants.  "  It's 
all  correct  about  Leipzig,"  remained  long  after  a  popular 
phrase  to  express  some  unexpected  and  incredible  thing. 
The  Papist  King  Sigismund  of  Poland  expressed  his  feelings 
on  the  event  in  the  remark,  "  he  could  not  understand  how 
it  was  that  the  Lord  of  hosts  had  turned  Lutheran."  It  was 
a  crushing  blow  to  the  house  of  Habsburg ;  Austria  was  lost 
if  Gustavus  Adolphus   had   forthwith   burst  into  Bohemia, 


336  FERDINAND     II. 

taken  possesion  of  Prague,  and  from  thence  advanced  to  the 
Danube,  and  knocked  at  the  gates  of  the  imperial  castle  in 
Vienna. 

This  bold  plan  Gustavus  Adolphus  did  not  carry  out ; 
very  likely  from  a  v^^ish  to  draw  nearer  his  ally,  France.  He 
left  Bohemia  and  Silesia  to  the  Electors  of  Saxony  and 
Brandenburg.  In  the  same  year  (1631)  John  George  con- 
quered Prague,  whose  defenceless  condition  was  betrayed  by 
Wallenstein  to  Arnim,  who  had  formerly  served  in  the  Fried- 
land  army.  Gustavus  Adolphus  marched  by  Erfurt  and  the 
Thuringian  forest  to  Würzburg,  took  Hanau,  and  arrived  on 
the  27th  of  November  at  Frankfort.  Here  he  was  joined  by 
the  exiled  King  of  Bohemia;  and  by  his  own  queen,  Eleonora, 
who  had  followed  him  with  his  chancellor,  the  celebrated 
Oxenstierna.  The  latter  greeted  his  sovereign  with  the  words, 
"  I  had  hoped  to  find  your  Majesty  at  Vienna."  Mayence 
capitulated  on  the  23rd  of  December,  and  the  whole  Rhenish 
Palatinate,  with  the  exception  of  Heidelberg,  was  cleared  of 
the  enemy.  Gustavus  now  began  to  negotiate  with  Bavaria. 
But  when  the  "  old  devil,"  as  Gustavus  called  Tilly,  had, 
under  the  cover  of  negotiations,  surprised  the  Swedish  general 
Horn  at  Bamberg,  Gustavus,  full  of  anger,  proceeded  in  the 
the  beginning  of  March,  1632,  to  the  conquest  of  Maximilian's 
country. 

In  this  campaign  old  Tilly  fell  mortally  wounded,  on  the 
15th  of  April,  in  the  engagement  on  the  Lech.  A  falconet 
ball  had  smashed  his  right  thigh.  He  died  on  the  22nd  at 
Ingolstadt.  His  last  care  was  Ratisbon ;  his  last  words,  as 
the  priest  held  out  the  crucifix  to  him,  "In  te,  Domine,  speravi, 
lion  conftindar  in  aternum."  Werner,  his  favourite  nephew,  a 
younger  son  of  his  brother,  who  died  seven  years  before  him, 
inherited  the  estates  which  the  Emperor  and  Maximilian  of 
Bavaria  had  granted  to  the  general ;  the  elder  brother  of 
Werner  succeeded  to  his  father  as  the  heir  of  the  family 
property  in  the  Low  Countries.  The  latter  founded  the 
Netherlandish,  Werner  the  German  line  of  the  Tillys.  Both 
lines  are  now  extinct;  the  German  in  1724,  the  Netherlandish 
in   1737.      From  some  of  the  younger  lines,  which  likewise 


GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS  AT  AUGSBURG  337 

branched  off  about  1630,  there  are  descendants  to  this  day 
in  Belgium.  One  of  the  scions  of  them,  Count  Alexander 
Tilly,  in  his  youthful  days  page  of  honour  to  the  unfortunate 
Queen  Marie  Antoinette,  blew  out  his  brains  at  Brussels  in 
1 81 6.  He  has  acquired  a  very  unenviable  notoriety  by  his 
most  scandalous  and  lascivious  memoirs. 

On  the  1 8th  of  April  Augsburg  fell  into  the  hands  of 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  who  created  a  great  sensation  by  making 
the  citizens  swear  allegiance  to  him.  It  appeared  as  if  he 
intended  to  change  that  beautiful  city  into  Augusta-Gustava, 
and  make  it  his  German  capital.  The  Elector  of  Bavaria 
sent  the  French  resident  minister  at  Munich,  St.  Etienne,  to 
the  camp  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  before  Ingolstadt,  to  treat 
with  him.  The  Swedish  sovereign  spoke  out  in  the  following 
style :  "  What  lie  and  deceit  is  this !  Has  not  Tilly  sur- 
prised my  gullible  Horn  at  Bamberg,  under  the  cover  of  nego- 
tiations ?  A  fortnight  ago  my  people  intercepted  a  courier, 
through  whom  Ferdinand  in  Vienna  promised  help  to  Duke 
Maximilian.  Help  by  whom  ?  By  his  old  arch-enemy  Fried- 
land,  who  now  comes  forth  again.  I  well  know  Maximilian 
and  all  the  bevy  of  monks  and  priests  who  guide  and  lead 
him.  He  wears  a  double  frock.  At  one  time  he  turns  the 
red  outside,  and  at  another  the  blue.  No  one  is  bound  to  keep 
faith  with  heretics — that's  it,  isn't  it  ?  May  the  devil  trust 
you  Papists !  You  just  go  to  a  priest  and  make  him  absolve 
you  from  all  your  oaths."  St.  Etienne  wished  to  reply,  but 
Gustavus  Adolphus  became  even  more  incensed,  and  sharply 
rebuked  the  Frenchman:  "  You  presume  too  far,  sir.  It  is  a 
King  to  whom  you  are  speaking ;  do  not  forget  that.  Such 
a  pert  Frenchman  has  a  very  glib  tongue,  and  will  always 
sing  some  notes  higher  than  is  marked  in  the  score.  You 
want  to  intrude  yourself  as  a  mediator,  and  you  have  not  even 
any  special  written  credentials.  The  duke  is  defeated,  and 
wants  even  now  to  treat  with  sword  in  hand  on  equal  terms. 
He  gives  me  credit  for  too  much  patience  by  far.  I  want 
Ingolstadt  as  a  pledge.  If  he  thinks  to  put  me  off  by  tem- 
porising until  the  Friedländer  comes,  my  army  shall  go  on  in 
his  country  in  a  way  which  will  make  him  feel  what  it  is  to 

VOL.    I  22 


338  FERDINAND    II. 

have  called  down  on  his  people,  for  the  benefit  of  strangers,  an 
angry  enemy.  The  King  of  France,"  Gustavus  Adolphus 
added,  "  needs  not,  however,  give  himself  the  trouble  of 
sending  an  army  into  Germany.  If  he  has  an  appetite 
for  war,  we  will  give  him  battle  under  the  walls  of  his  own 
capital." 

The  Elector  of  Bavaria  had  in  the  meanwhile  possessed 
himself  by  stratagem  of  the  important  free  city  of  Ratisbon. 
Nor  did  he  surrender  Ingolstadt.  But  Gustavus  Adolphus, 
without  stopping  to  lay  siege  to  it,  marched  straightway  to 
Munich.  The  court  fled  to  Salzburg.  Some  of  the  magis- 
tracy, with  the  French  minister,  went  to  meet  the  King  as 
far  as  Freising,  bringing  to  him  the  keys  of  their  city.  On 
the  17th  of  May,  1632,  Gustavus  made  his  entry  into  Munich. 
He  was  accompanied  by  the  ex- King  of  Bohemia,  the  Elector 
Palatine,  who  now  with  Gustavus  took  up  his  quarters  at  the 
palace  of  that  same  cousin  who  had  driven  him  out  of  Prague. 
Gustavus  celebrated  Whitsuntide  at  Augsburg.  An  old 
chronicle  relates:  *'0n  the  30th  of  May,  being  Whit-Monday, 
the  King  did  not  attend  public  service,  but  had  his  own  chap- 
lain, Dr.  Fabricius,  to  preach  before  him,  as  well  in  the 
morning  as  in  the  afternoon,  in  his  apartments.  In  the 
evening,  at  table,  he  suddenly  felt  a  desire  for  a  dance,  where- 
upon immediately  matters  were  arranged  to  have  the  young 
ladies  of  the  patrician  houses  assembled,  with  whom  the  King 
and  the  other  princely  personages  amused  themselves  for 
several  hours  in  English  and  German  dances."  Gustavus 
Adolphus,  in  fact,  was  a  great  admirer  of  ladies.  Once  he 
tried  to  kiss  one  of  the  fair  Augsburgers,  Jacobina  Lauber, 
with  whom  he  was  particularly  pleased ;  but  she  in  the 
struggle  tore  off  the  King's  rufF.^  From  Augsburg  Gustavus 
then  marched  to  Franconia,  where,  on  the  gth  of  June,  he 
occupied  Nuremberg.  It  was  for  the  last  decisive  struggle 
against  Wallenstein,  on  whom  the  Emperor,  threatened  in 
his  own  hereditary  dominions,  had  actually  again  conferred 
the  chief  command,  and  who  had  united  with  Maximilian  at 
Eger. 

1  It  is  still  preserved,  under  glass,  at  Augsburg, — Translator. 


WALLENSTEIN     IN     RETIREMENT  339 

Wallenstein  had  in  the  meantime  lived  in  proud  retire- 
ment, partly  at  Prague  and  partly  at  Gitschin,  the  little 
capital  of  his  duchy  of  Friedland.  At  Prague  he  lived  with 
almost  royal  pomp,  but,  as  far  as  he  himself  was  concerned, 
just  as  formerly  at  the  camp,  in  the  strictest  seclusion.  For 
the  great  palace  which  he  built  in  the  Bohemian  capital  one 
hundred  houses  had  to  be  pulled  down.  All  the  streets  which 
led  to  it  were  barred  with  chains ;  the  entrance  was  by  six 
gateways.  In  the  courtyard  a  bodyguard  of  fifty  gorgeously 
dressed  halberdiers  kept  watch.  His  household  comprised 
nearly  i,ooo  persons.  At  the  head  of  his  court,  as  lord 
chamberlain,  stood  Count  Paul  Liechtenstein,  who,  besides 
a  monthly  salary  of  200  florins,  had  board  for  himself  and 
forty-eight  dependants,  with  forage  for  as  many  horses.  His 
first  steward  was  a  Count  Harrach,  his  chief  equerry  a  Count 
Hardegg.  The  duke  himself  was  waited  upon  by  twenty-four 
chamberlains,  who,  like  those  of  the  Emperor,  wore  golden 
keys,  and  by  sixty  pages  of  honour  of  the  first  houses,  all  of 
them  dressed  in  sky-blue  velvet,  laced  and  embroidered  with 
gold.  Many  of  the  former  officers  of  Wallenstein  were  living 
at  his  court,  drawing  pensions  and  receiving  free  board  at  his 
table,  which  was  never  served  with  less  than  a  hundred  dishes. 
His  stables  contained  upwards  of  1,000  saddle  and  carriage 
horses,  which  fed  out  of  marble  mangers.  When  he  travelled, 
there  were  never  less  than  fifty  carriages,  drawn  by  six  horses, 
and  fifty  drawn  by  four.  In  a  lofty  vaulted  banqueting-hall 
of  his  palace  at  Prague,  he  was  depicted  in  a  triumphal  car, 
drawn  by  four  horses  of  the  sun,  with  a  star  over  his  laurel- 
crowned  head.  The  long  suites  of  rooms  of  this  palace  were 
filled  with  astrological,  allegorical,  and  mythological  figures. 
A  secret  staircase  led  from  a  small  round  saloon  into  a  grotto 
of  artificial  stalactites,  where  there  was  a  bath.  Adjoining 
this  grotto  was  a  spacious  portico,  from  which  one  entered  the 
gardens,  adorned  with  fountains,  and  with  canals  abounding 
with  fish. 

Wallenstein's  fortune  was  colossal,  even  according  to  the 
standard  of  our  own  times.  His  yearly  revenue  was  estimated 
at  6,000,000  florins  (;^6oo,ooo),  derived  partly  from  the  large 

22 — 2 


340  FERDINAND    II. 

capital  which  he  had  placed  in  the  banks  of  Amsterdam  and 
Venice,  and  partly  from  his  estates  in  Moravia  and  Bohemia, 
especially  the  duchy  of  Friedland  and  the  principality  of 
Sagan.  Although  no  longer  in  the  possession  of  the  duchy  of 
Mecklenburg,  he  continued  until  1631  to  coin  ducats  with  the 
legend  of  his  name,  as  Duke  of  Mecklenburg.  On  the  obverse 
of  these  Wallenstein  ducats,  which  are  now  very  rare,  his  bust 
is  seen  with  bare  head  and  short-cropped  hair,  with  the  legend : 
"Albertus  D.  G.  Dux  Megapel.  Fridl.;'"  and  on  the  reverse  a 
coat-of-arms,  covered  with  the  ducal  crown,  and  surrounded 
with  the  collar  and  badge  of  the  Golden  Fleece,  with  the  legend 
continued:  "Et  Sagani  Princeps  Vand."  As  an  indemnity  for 
Mecklenburg,  he  had  received  the  principality  of  Glogau. 
During  the  time  of  his  retirement,  he  had  been  endeavouring 
to  have  this  considerable  estate  created  a  new  hereditary  fief 
of  the  Empire,  and,  if  possible,  to  add  to  it  the  two  Lusatias. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  Elector  of  Saxony  was  to  be  invested 
with  Mecklenburg.  With  this  potentate  he  concluded,  on  the 
7th  of  January,  1631,  an  agreement  mutually  to  respect  each 
other's  countries.  He  was  untiring  in  making  judicious 
arrangements  for  the  management  of  his  vast  property ;  he 
tried  to  humour  the  Jesuits  by  rich  donations ;  and  he  called 
into  his  service  able  men,  like  the  celebrated  Kepler.  He 
had  attached  to  his  person  the  astrologer  Seni,  an  Italian  with 
whom  he  passed  whole  nights  in  astrological  studies.  Beyond 
this  he  conversed  with  very  few  persons,  his  only  confidants 
being  his  brother-in-law  Terzka,  the  husband  of  his  wife's 
sister  Maximiliana  Harrach ;  and  Terzka's  mother,  whom  he 
particularly  esteemed  for  her  sound  judgment.  His  health 
had  been  greatly  impaired  by  over-exertion,  the  toils  of  war, 
and  sleepless  nights ;  he  was  obliged  in  walking  to  support 
himself  on  an  Indian  cane,  and  to  live  most  abstemiously. 

Wallenstein  had  kept  up  an  uninterrupted  correspondence 
with  the  Emperor,  by  whom  he  was  constantly  employed  in 
diplomatic  negotiations  with  the  King  of  Denmark,  to  bring 
about  an  alliance  with  this  sovereign  against  the  "  Swedish 
canaglia,"  as  Wallenstein  called  the  Swedes,  whom  he  loathed 
to  see  in  Germany.     Wallenstein  also,  by  command  and  in 


WALLENSTEIN     RE-APPOINTED  34I 

the  interest  of  Ferdinand,  negotiated  through  Arnim  with  the 
Elector  of  Saxony. 

After  the  terrible  blow  of  the  battle  of  Leipzig,  when  it 
was  requisite  to  win  back  a  man  whose  credit  among  the 
soldiers  was  without  its  equal,  Questenberg  was  despatched  to 
Prague,  to  treat  with  Wallenstein  about  his  resuming  the  chief 
command  of  the  Emperor's  army.  Wallenstein,  pleading  the 
state  of  his  health,  declined  every  offer.  Prague  then  sur- 
rendered without  striking  a  blow  to  Arnim,  Don  Balthazar 
Maradas  having  withdrawn  his  troops  and  placed  them  in 
safety.  Previous  to  doing  so,  he  applied  to  Wallenstein  for 
advice.  The  latter,  however,  answered  that  he  should  do 
as  he  pleased ;  he  (Wallenstein)  had  no  longer  any  command. 
Arnim,  on  his  side,  had  given  orders  "  not  to  harm  even  a 
chicken  on  the  property  of  the  Duke  of  Friedland."  Wallen- 
stein left  Prague  for  Gitschin,  after  having  sent  his  wife  with 
his  most  valuable  property,  under  the  escort  of  his  cousin 
Maximilian,  to  Vienna.  Maximilian  was  now  made  the  bearer 
of  a  pathetic  note  from  Ferdinand  to  Wallenstein,  in  which 
the  Emperor  implored  him  "  not  to  go  out  of  the  way  in  the 
present  distress,  and  still  less  to  abandon  him."  This  letter 
had  its  effect.  Wallenstein,  in  December,  1631,  went  to 
Znaym,  in  Moravia,  from  thence  to  continue  his  negotiations 
with  the  Emperor.  Wallenstein  at  last  was  brought  to  a 
definitive  decision  by  his  friend  Prince  Eggenberg,  whom 
Ferdinand  sent  to  him  to  Znaym.  He  at  first  agreed  to 
undertake  the  command  again,  but  only  for  three  months. 
Being  pressed  more  and  more  earnestly  he  at  last  consented 
to  take  the  chief  command  without  any  limitation  of  time, 
but  "in  ahsolutissima  formäy  The  commission  indeed  con- 
ferred on  the  generalissimo  such  absolute  power  that  neither 
the  Emperor  himself  nor  his  son  should  have  anything  to  say 
in  the  army,  nor  go  to  it  in  person,  nor  be  allowed  to  claim 
the  command.  Articles  6  and  7  expressly  stipulated  that  the 
duke  should  have  unlimited  power  to  seize  the  estates  of 
rebellious  members  of  the  Empire  ;  to  pardon  or  to  punish 
with  confiscation  whomsoever  he  thought  guilty.  It  was 
moreover    stated   that    neither   the   Supreme   Aulic   Council 


342  FERDINAND     II. 

(ReichsJiofrath)  nor  the  imperial  chamber,  nor  the  Emperor 
himself,  should  have  the  least  right  to  interfere  in  such 
matters.  "  For,"  it  was  said  in  the  compact,  "  the  Emperor 
was  too  kind-hearted,  and  granted  his  pardon  to  any  guilty 
person  who  came  to  court ;  thereby  the  means  were  cut  off  which 
were  requisite  to  reward  high  and  low  officers^" 

These  articles  very  plainly  show  Wallenstein's  intention 
to  take  up  again  his  old  plan  of  crushing  the  existing  high 
aristocracy  of  princes. 

As  an  "  ordinary  recompense,"  Wallenstein  demanded  the 
Emperor's  securing  to  him  one  of  the  provinces  of  the  hereditary 
Austrian  dominions,  and,  as  an  *'  extraordinary  recompense,"  to 
be  made  liege-lord  of  the  conquered  countries. 

The  contract  was  concluded  at  Znaym,  in  April,  1632, 
after  Tilly  had  been  killed  on  the  Lech.  Its  stipulations  are 
so  extraordinary  as  not  perhaps  to  have  their  parallel  in  the 
whole  history  of  the  world.  None  but  a  man  of  such  a 
strange  fanciful  turn  of  mind  as  Wallenstein  could  have 
blinded  himself  to  the  inherent  danger  of  a  situation,  in  which 
all  the  usual  conditions  of  security  between  man  and  man 
were  suspended,  and  the  positions  of  sovereign  and  subject 
completely  reversed. 

No  sooner  did  the  recruiting  begin  in  the  name  of  the 
all-popular  captain  than  crowds  came  in  from  all  sides — 
Walloons  from  Flanders,  Croats  from  Hungary,  Pulks  of 
Cossacks  from  Poland — to  join  his  standard.  Thus,  after 
the  lapse  of  only  a  few  months.  Wallenstein  had  collected 
a  new  army,  consisting  of  120  companies  of  foot,  and  214 
squadrons  of  horse ;  about  40,000  men  in  all,  with  44  cannon. 
From  the  very  first  he  used  with  the  greatest  profusion  his  old 
expedient  of  attaching  to  himself  his  officers  by  gifts  of  money 
and  by  promotion.  Isolani,  who  had  succeeded  in  bringing  in 
a  great  number  of  men  from  Hungary,  was  appointed  general- 
in-chief  of  the  whole  light  cavalry  ;  the  four  counts,  Gallas, 
Aldringer,  Mansfeld,  Montecuculi,  colonels  of  artillery. 

The  court  and  nobility,  on  their  side,  made  the  greatest 
exertions  to  supply  money.  The  King  of  Hungary  gave 
300,000  crowns,  Prince  Eggenberg  100,000  Bohemian  dollars, 


THE    TWO    CAMPS     NEAR     NUREMBERG  343 

the  Prince-Bishop  of  Vienna  80,000  crowns,  and  others  in 
proportion.  A  heavy  property-tax  was  laid  on  the  clergy 
as  well  as  laity.  Every  landed  noble  in  Austria  paid  forty, 
the  tradespeople  of  the  court  thirty,  lawyers  twelve,  common 
tradespeople  six,  parish  priests  and  chaplains  four,  the  inhabi- 
tants of  the  suburbs  of  Vienna  three,  the  country  people  two 
florins  each.  Even  day-labourers  and  men  and  maid-servants 
had  to  pay  a  poll-tax  of  fifteen  kreutzers. 

After  having,  by  the  end  of  May,  1632,  cleared  Prague 
and  the  whole  of  Bohemia  of  the  Saxons,  who  retired  to 
Silesia,  Wallenstein  united,  at  Eger,  with  Maximilian  of 
Bavaria,  whose  army  amounted  to  about  20,000  men.  The 
Elector,  who  formerly  had  been  the  principal  author  of 
Wallenstein's  downfall,  was  now  obliged  to  yield  to  him  the 
chief  command.  The  two  princes,  when  meeting,  each  at 
the  head  of  his  army,  embraced  in  sight  of  their  troops, 
apparently  reconciled  and  friendly.  "  But,"  Khevenhüller 
remarks,  "  the  curious  observers  noticed  that  his  Electoral 
Highness  had  learned  better  how  to  dissemble  than  the 
duke."  Both  now  marched  against  the  Swedish  King,  who 
was  stationed  at  Nuremberg.  Gustavus  Adolphus  thus 
entered  the  lists  also  against  Wallenstein  for  the  contest  in 
which  it  was  to  be  decided  which  of  the  two  should  be  con- 
sidered as  the  first  general  of  the  day. 

On  the  6th  of  July,  1632,  the  combined  Wallenstein  and 
Bavarian  armies,  after  plundering  and  devastating  with  fire 
and  sword  all  the  countries  through  which  they  passed, 
appeared  in  the  large  plain  before  Nursmberg,  in  which  city 
Gustavus  Adolphus  had  entrenched  himself  with  the  help  of 
the  inhabitants.  Wallenstein  occupied  the  heights  near  what 
is  still  called  Alte  Veste  (Old  Fastness),  two  leagues  from 
Nuremberg,  and  likewise  fortified  his  camp,  which  spread 
over  the  slopes  of  those  hillocks  down  into  the  plain.  It  was 
his  plan  not  to  give  battle  to  the  King,  to  whom  he  wished  to 
show  that  he  had  it  in  his  own  power  to  fight  or  not  to  fight, 
just  as  he  pleased.  And  there  Wallenstein  stood  "as  if  frozen 
to  the  ground."  Famine  and  misery  began  to  spread  all 
around.     The   King,   whose  army,  originally   amounting  to 


344  FERDINAND     II. 

1 8,000,  had  been  increased  by  the  troops  under  Bernard  of 
Weimar  to  the  strength  of  30,000,  was  obliged  to  fight  or 
to  retire.  An  assault,  made  on  the  4th  of  September  on 
Wallenstein's  position,  was  repulsed  with  a  great  loss  on  the 
side  of  the  Swedes.  Gustavus  Adolphus  said,  with  assumed 
jocularity,  "  We  have  made  a  tour  de  page,''  but  he  never  from 
that  day  recovered  his  old  spirit. 

A  few  days  after  this  defeat,  Gustavus  Adolphus  sent  the 
imperialist  Major  Sparre,  a  native  of  Sweden,  who  had  been 
made  prisoner,  to  Wallenstein  with  proposals  of  peace.  But, 
even  without  waiting  for  the  arrival  of  the  answer  from 
Vienna,  the  King,  on  the  i8th  of  September,  marched  his 
army  off  from  Nuremberg.  Passing  by  Wallenstein,  who 
remained  immovable  within  his  lines,  he  led  his  troops  to 
Ingolstadt,  with  the  intention  of  again  penetrating  into  the 
heart  of  Bavaria.  With  another  division,  Bernard  of  Weimar 
covered  the  Maine  and  Franconia.  The  Swedish  chancellor, 
Oxenstierna,  remained  behind  at  Nuremberg.  On  the  23rd 
of  the  same  month,  Wallenstein  also  marched  off  in  the 
direction  of  Franconia,  giving,  as  a  farewell  to  the  desolate 
country  around,  the  awfully  magnificent  spectacle  of  burning 
his  camp,  which  was  not  less  than  one  German  league  and 
a  half  (about  seven  miles  English)  in  circumference,  the  train 
of  his  army  alone  numbering  no  less  than  30,000  men  and 
women,  and  as  many  horses. 

The  Elector  of  Bavaria  followed  Wallenstein  as  far  as 
Coburg.  Wallenstein,  turning  a  deaf  ear  to  Maximilian's 
urgent  entreaties  to  protect  his  States,  marched  through 
Franconia  to  Saxony,  forcibly  to  detach  the  Elector  of  the 
latter  country  from  the  Swedish  alliance,  and  to  interrupt 
the  King's  communication  with  Pomerania  and  Sweden. 
He  also  sent  orders  to  Pappenheim  to  come  and  join  him. 
The  march  of  the  imperialist  army  through  the  Erzgebirge 
and  the  Voigtland  was,  as  usual,  attended  with  the  most 
wanton  destruction  and  cruelty.  Everywhere  the  cattle 
were  carried  off,  the  fruit-trees  cut  down,  the  villages  and 
farm-houses  set  on  fire.  The  Elector  of  Saxony,  there- 
fore,  despatched    messenger    after    messenger   to   Gustavus 


BATTLE     OF    LUTZEN  345 

Adolphus  begging  him  to  return  to  liis  assistance  ;  and  the 
King,  in  compliance  with  his  request,  left  Bavaria  by  forced 
marches,  and  united,  on  the  2nd  of  November,  near  Arnstadt 
with  Bernard  of  Weimar.  At  Erfurt  he  took,  on  the  9th,  his 
last  farewell  of  his  beautiful  Queen  Eleonora.  From  thence 
he  advanced  to  Naumburg  on  the  Saale. 

Here  the  King  entered  a  fortified  camp.  He  determined 
to  wait  for  the  arrival  of  the  Saxon  troops  from  Silesia,  and 
of  Duke  George  of  Lüneburg  from  Westphalia.  Wallenstein 
having  on  the  22nd  of  October  taken  Leipzig,  and  near  Merse- 
burg been  joined  by  Pappenheim,  looked  upon  the  campaign 
as  closed,  and  placed  his  army  in  winter  quarters  round 
Leipzig,  firmly  believing  that  Gustavus  Adolphus  would  do 
the  same.  On  the  14th,  moreover,  he  sent  off  Pappenheim 
by  Halle  to  the  Rhine  for  the  protection  of  Cologne.  Hearing 
this  Gustavus  Adolphus  marched  on  the  5th  of  November 
(O.S.)  upon  Leipzig,  determined  to  give  battle  to  Wallenstein, 

Again,  on  the  plains  of  Leipzig,  not  far  from  the  spot 
where  Tilly  had  been  defeated,  the  two  hostile  armies  met. 
Wallenstcin  in  all  haste  wrote  from  Lützen,  on  the  5th  of 
November  (O.S.),  to  Pappenheim  :  "  The  enemy  is  marching 
down  upon  us.  The  general  is  to  leave  everything  as  it 
stands,  and  to  set  out  immediately  with  all  his  troops  and 
cannon,  so  that  he  may  join  us  to-morrow  morning  early." 
The  original  of  this  order  is  still  preserved  in  the  archives 
of  Vienna ;  it  is  stained  with  the  blood  of  Pappenheim,  who 
carried  it  about  him  on  the  day  of  the  battle  of  Lützen,  at 
which  he  was  killed. 

On  the  evening  of  that  very  day  Wallenstein  had  his  army 
called  under  arms  by  the  usual  signal  of  three  cannon-shots  ; 
and  Field-marshal  Hoik  during  the  night  placed  the  troops  in 
order  of  battle.  The  Swedish  army  was  stationed  about  one 
league  from  Lützen.  Gustavus  Adolphus  passed  the  cold 
November  night,  as  he  had  done  at  Breitenfeld,  in  his  carriage, 
conversing  with  Bernard  of  Weimar  and  General  Kniphausen. 
Scarcely  had  the  morning  dawned  which  was  destined  to  be 
the  last  of  his  life,  when  the  King  appeared  and  made  his 
dispositions  for  the  battle.     The  tactical  arrangement  was  as 


346  FERDINAND     II. 

it  had  been  near  Breitenfeld — the  army  of  about  20,000  men 
being  drawn  up  in  two  Hues  of  battle,  divided  into  a  centre 
and  two  wings.  The  cavalry  again  was  mixed  with  platoons 
of  infantry  placed  at  intervals  between  it.  The  different 
divisions  were  arrayed  in  such  a  manner  as  not  to  impede 
each  other's  movements.  The  right  wing  was  commanded 
by  the  King  himself,  the  left  by  Duke  Bernard  ;  the  first  line 
of  the  centre  by  Count  Niels-Brahe,  the  second  by  General 
Kniphausen.  The  centre  was  formed  by  eight  brigades, 
before  each  of  which  five  large  field-pieces  were  drawn  up, 
light  pieces  being  distributed  among  the  infantry  regiments 
of  the  wings. 

Wallenstein,  like  Tilly  at  Breitenfeld,  had  arrayed  his 
army  in  large  close  square  columns,  likewise  in  two  lines  of 
battle,  with  the  cavalry  on  the  two  wings,  and  with  the  canal 
of  Lützen  and  the  high  road  before  him.  That  canal  and  the 
ditches  along  the  high  road  were  defended  by  his  musketeers 
and  artillery.  In  front  of  his  right  wing  were  windmills, 
which,  as  they  commanded  the  whole  plain,  were  occupied  by 
fourteen  pieces  of  heavy  artillery.  The  right  wing,  which 
rested  on  Lützen,  stood  under  the  command  of  Hoik,  the 
left  under  that  of  General  Götz.  With  the  latter  Pappen- 
heim was  expected  to  join,  and  then  to  take  the  command  of 
it.  On  the  morning  of  the  6th  (i6th)  November  Wallenstein 
sent  for  the  generals  and  colonels  to  his  carriage,  which  he 
was  seldom  able  to  quit  as  he  continually  suffered  from  the 
gout,  owing  to  which  he  had  sometimes  even  to  be  carried  in 
a  litter.  After  having  given  the  necessary  orders,  he  had  his 
charger  brought  out,  but  the  metal  stirrups  had  to  be  wrapped 
in  silk  to  prevent  his  aching  feet  from  being  roughly  pressed 
upon.  In  this  manner,  keeping  a  firm  seat  on  his  horse, 
he  rode  through  the  ranks,  encouraged  the  soldiers,  and  gave 
the  battle-cry,  which  was  again  that  of  Breitenfeld,  **  Jesu 
Maria." 

The  whole  field  was  covered  by  a  dense  fog,  which  com- 
pletely intercepted  the  view.  The  King  of  Sweden  likewise 
mounted  his  white  charger,  and  addressed  the  Swedes, 
Finlanders,   and   Germans   separately.     He  then   caused  to 


BATTLE     OF     LÜTZEN  347 

be  sung,  to  the  sound  of  trumpets  and  kettledrums,  Luther's 
Hymn,  "  A  strong  fortress  is  our  God,"  and  his  own 
favourite  hymn,  known  as  his  "  Field  Song,"  composed  by 
his  chaplain  Dr.  Fabricius  : 

"  Do  not  despair,  thou  little  band, 
E'en  though  the  foe  is  near  at  hand. 
To  bring  thee  to  destruction."  * 

As  a  war-cry  he  too  gave  that  of  Breitenfeld,  "  God  with 
us."  He  had  not  yet  broken  his  fast,  and  again  only  wore 
his  buflf  jerkin,  with  a  coat  of  broadcloth  over  it,  without  any 
cuirass,  as  an  old  wound  and  his  corpulency  made  it  incon- 
venient for  him  to  wear  armour.  On  the  morning  of  the 
battle  he  expressly  declined  it,  saying,  "  God  is  my  cuirass." 

It  was  now  nine  o'clock.  The  King  had  approached 
Wallenstein's  order  of  battle  within  range  of  cannon-shot. 
The  artillery  began  to  play,  the  cavalry  to  throw  out  skir- 
mishers ;  but  as  the  thick  fog  made  it  impossible  to  see 
anything,  all  was  soon  quiet  again.  Shortly  after  ten  o'clock 
the  fog  began  to  disperse,  and  there  was  a  little  gleam  of 
sunshine.  The  King  was  just  staying  with  Duke  Bernard 
opposite  the  windmills,  in  front  of  the  right  wing  of  Wallen- 
stein ;  and  he  called  out  with  a  loud  voice,  **  Now  let  us  be  at 
it !  The  Lord  be  with  us  !  Lord  Jesus,  help  !  We  fight  to- 
day for  the  honour  and  glory  of  thy  holy  name !  "  Then 
drawing  his  sword,  he  charged  with  the  word  of  command, 
"  Forward,"  against  the  ditches  of  the  high  road,  which 
were  kept  by  Wallenstein's  artillery  and  musketeers.  It  was 
his  principal  object  to  take  the  battery  near  the  windmills, 
which  was  the  key  of  Wallenstein's  position.  Behind  the 
ditches  he  was  received  by  a  murderous  fire ;  and  only  after 
three  hours'  hard  fighting,  three  of  the  enemy's  squares  were 
broken  by  the  Swedish  infantry  under  Brahe.  The  King  now 
descried  the  cuirassiers  of  Wallenstein's  second  line  of  battle, 
in    their  black  cuirasses,   and   at  their  head,   in  glittering 

1  '•  Verzage  nicht,  du  Häuflein  klein, 
Obschon  die  Feinde  willens  sein 
Dich  gänzlich  zu  zerstören." 


348  FERDINAND     II. 

armour,  their  colonel,  Ottavio  Piccolomini,  the  same  who 
afterwards  betrayed  Wallenstein.  Gustavus  called  out  to 
Colonel  Stalhantsch,  who  commanded  the  Finland  regiment 
of  horse,  "  Attack  those  black  fellows !  "  But  being  at  this 
moment  apprised  that  the  imperial  cavalry  in  the  centre  had 
again  driven  back  his  previously  successful  infantry,  he  put 
himself  at  the  head  of  the  Smaland  regiment,  commanded  by 
the  wounded  Colonel  Steenbock,  to  hasten  to  the  support  of 
his  own  centre.  Whilst  he  was  thus  riding  on  at  full  speed, 
few  only  could  follow  him.  These  were  Duke  Francis  Albert 
of  Saxe  Lauenburg,  with  his  equerry  Luchau ;  the  lord  of 
the  bedchamber.  Von  Truchsess ;  the  page  Augustus  von 
Leubelfing,  the  son  of  a  Nuremberg  patrician  house,  a  lad 
of  only  eighteen  years  ;  and,  besides  these  gentlemen,  two 
grooms.  At  once  the  King  found  himself  in  the  midst  of  the 
enemy's  horsemen,  those  "  black  fellows."  His  horse  was 
wounded  in  the  neck  by  a  pistol-shot ;  after  which  he  himself 
had  his  left  arm  shattered  by  another  ball.  His  first  words 
were,  "  It  is  nothing,  follow  me ;  "  but  the  wound  was  so 
severe  that  the  bones  protruded  through  the  sleeve.  He  now 
begged  the  Duke  of  Lauenburg  to  remove  him  from  the  fray, 
and  turned  round ;  but  at  the  same  moment  he  received  from 
the  imperialist  Lieutenant-colonel  Maurice  von  Falken- 
berg, the  brother  of  that  Swedish  commandant  who  had 
been  killed  at  the  taking  of  Magdeburg,  another  pistol-shot  in 
the  back.  Exclaiming  with  a  sigh,  "  My  God,  my  God !  "  he 
sank  from  the  saddle ;  but  his  foot  being  fast  in  the  stirrup, 
he  was  dragged  on  by  his  horse.  The  equerry  Luchau  now 
engaged  Falkenberg ;  the  Duke  fled,  and  the  page  alone 
remained  with  the  King.  He  was  still  alive,  and  the  boy, 
who  refused  to  tell  that  it  was  the  King,  was  himself  mortally 
wounded.  The  King,  after  being  robbed  of  his  golden  chain, 
and  stripped,  at  last  called  out,  "  I  am  the  King  of  Sweden  !  " 
Upon  which  the  black  cuirassiers  tried  to  carry  him  off  with 
them  ;  but  at  this  moment  Steenbock's  regiment  came  up. 
The  black  cuirassiers  took  to  flight,  and,  being  unable  to  take 
the  King  with  them,  they  shot  him  through  the  head, 
and  stabbed  him  in  several  places  through  the  body ;  after 


THE  DEATH  OF  GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS         349 

which  they  dropped  him.  The  Swedish  squadrons  then 
rode  over  his  corpse.  This  happened  at  two  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon. 

The  King's  wounded  and  blood-stained  white  charger, 
racing  along  the  Swedish  lines,  was  the  first  harbinger  of  the 
sad  news.  Von  Truchsess  carried  the  intelligence  to  Duke 
Bernard,  whom  Gustavus  Adolphus  had  appointed  as  his 
successor  in  the  chief  command,  if  anything  should  happen  to 
himself.  General  Kniphausen,  who  commanded  the  reserve, 
now  voted  for  retreat ;  but  Duke  Bernard  called  out  with 
great  spirit,  "  There  cannot  be  question  now  of  retreat,  but 
only  of  revenge.     Either  we  win  the  battle  or  die !  " 

He  now  ordered  the  regiment  of  Steenbock  to  follow  him ; 
and  on  its  lieutenant-colonel's  refusing  obedience,  he  ran  him 
through  the  body  before  the  front  of  his  battalion. 

The  soldiers  of  three  other  regiments  he  encouraged  to 
advance  with  him,  calling  out  to  them,  "  Whoever  wishes  to 
show  that  he  has  loved  the  King  may  do  so  now.  Up,  then, 
and  boldly  attack  the  enemy."  After  having  said  this,  the 
duke,  without  minding  that  his  hat  was  shot  off  his  head, 
rushed  a  second  time  against  the  ditches  to  take  the  height  on 
which  the  windmills  stood.  At  that  moment  a  powder- waggon 
blew  up  in  the  rear  of  the  lines  of  the  imperialists.  This 
opportune  accident  decided  the  battle ;  the  squares  of  the 
imperialists  fell  into  confusion,  and  their  ranks  broke,  as  they 
were  afraid  of  being  attacked  in  the  rear.  Bernard  now 
drove  the  imperialists  from  the  ditches,  and  took  the  batteries. 
According  to  all  appearances,  the  victory  was  his.  Such  was 
the  state  of  things  about  three  in  the  afternoon. 

Then  Pappenheim  arrived  from  Halle  with  four  regiments 
of  cavalry,  and  joined  the  left  wing  of  the  imperialist  army. 
He  again  retrieved  the  battle,  and  Bernard  was  forced  back 
across  the  ditches ;  but  Pappenheim  also  fell,  pierced  by  two 
bullets,  and  had  to  be  removed  from  the  fight.  Bernard 
now  ordered  up  the  reserve  under  General  Kniphausen,  and 
renewed  the  battle  for  the  third  time.  All  the  Swedes 
advanced  over  the  ditches ;  even  those  who  were  nearly  worn 
out  by  the  toil  of  the  fight  rallied  once  more ;  all  called  out, 


350  FERDINAND    II. 

"  Up  at  them  for  another  time."  This  last  attack  turned  the 
scale.  Wallenstein's  luck  waned  before  the  rising  star  of 
Bernard  of  Weimar.  Pappenheim's  six  infantry  regiments 
only  arrived  after  the  order  for  retreat  had  been  given,  and 
were  involved  in  the  flight  of  the  others. 

Wallenstein,  having  ascertained  the  death  of  Gustavus 
Adolphus  from  a  trumpeter  of  Hoik's  regiment  who  showed  to 
him  a  spur  of  the  King,  now  retired  to  Leipzig,  and  from 
thence  through  the  Erzgebirge  and  the  Voigtland  to  Bohemia, 
where  he  entered  winter  quarters  at  Prague.  Here  he  caused 
several  officers  to  be  executed,  the  "  imperialist  arms,"  as  he 
expressed  it,  "  having  through  them  suffered  at  Lützen  a 
disgrace  never  to  be  blotted  out  again."  Since  then  he  was 
spoken  of  in  the  army  as  a  tyrant.  His  own  dark  fate  was  to 
be  fulfilled  in  Bohemia ;  the  death  on  the  field  of  honour, 
which  his  great  foe  had  met  with  at  Lützen,  was  not  destined 
to  fall  to  his  lot.  Pappenheim,  at  the  early  age  of  thirty- 
eight,  died  on  the  day  after  the  battle,  at  the  Pleissenburg  in 
the  city  of  Leipzig ;  the  Golden  Fleece,  which  was  on  its  way 
for  him,  did  not  reach  him  alive.  With  his  son,  who  died  in 
a  duel  in  1647,  his  branch  of  the  house  of  Pappenheim  became 
extinct. 

The  Swedish  army  occupied  all  through  the  night  the 
battlefield  on  which  it  had  combated  with  almost  super- 
human exertions  for  eleven  hours,  from  ten  in  the  morning 
to  nine  at  night.  Their  exhausted  condition  did  not  allow 
them  to  think  of  pursuing  Wallenstein ;  his  artillery  alone 
became  the  booty  of  the  conquerors. 

On  the  following  morning  the  Swedes  sought  among  the 
many  corpses  which  strewed  the  field  for  the  dead  body  of 
their  King.  It  was  found  stripped  naked,  scarcely  to  be 
recognised — so  disfigured  was  it  with  blood  and  bruises 
from  the  hoofs  of  the  horses — and  covered  with  nine  wounds ; 
not  far  from  the  large  stone  which  to  this  day  is  called  the 
Swede's  stone  (Schwedenstein),  near  the  little  town  of  Lützen, 
a  few  yards  off  the  high  road  leading  from  Leipzig  to  Naum- 
burg. Duke  Bernard  caused  the  body  to  be  taken  to  Weis- 
senfels,  where  Queen  Eleonora  received  it,  and  from  thence 


A  TE  DEUM  SUNG  IN  ALL  THE  CHURCHES      35! 

conveyed  the  beloved  remains  herself  by  way  of  Berlin  to 
Stockholm.  The  army  swore  to  Duke  Bernard,  over  the 
corpse  of  the  King,  that  they  would  follow  him  to  the  end  of 
the  world. 

The  unexpected  death  of  the  King  of  Sweden,  who  had 
not  yet  completed  his  thirty-eighth  year,  caused  the  greatest 
sensation  throughout  Europe  among  Papists  as  well  as 
Protestants.  The  Emperor  had  a  Te  Deum  sung  in  all  the 
churches  as  if  he  had  gained  the  most  glorious  victory ;  but 
he  wept  at  the  sight  of  the  blood-stained  buff  jerkin  of 
Gustavus  Adolphus  with  the  holes  made  by  the  balls  in  the 
sleeve  and  in  the  back.  At  Madrid  there  were  great  re- 
joicings, and  the  death  of  the  King  was  represented  at  the 
playhouse  for  the  gratification  of  the  faithful.  The  Pope, 
who  in  his  heart  had  been  not  a  little  pleased  that  someone 
had  risen  to  oppose  the  overwhelming  supremacy  of  the 
Emperor,  caused  a  low  mass  to  be  read  for  the  soul  of  the 
fallen  champion  of  the  heretics.  On  the  Protestants,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  sudden  disaster  fell  like  a  thunderbolt.  The 
banished  King  of  Bohemia  was  actually  seized  with  paralysis 
on  receiving  the  news  at  Mayence.  He  died  at  the  age  of 
thirty-six,  leaving  a  family  of  thirteen  young  children,  with 
whom  his  widow,  for  nearly  thirty  years,  had  to  wander 
about  the  world  without  a  home,  and  often  without  any 
means  of  subsistence,  pursued  by  more  than  one  romantic 
love  and  also  by  bloodthirsty  hatred.  Frederic  had  been 
mean  and  craven  enough,  after  the  peace  of  Lübeck  in  1629, 
to  offer  to  the  Emperor  to  deliver  up  his  children  to  the  care 
of  the  Jesuits  of  Vienna  for  education.  Under  the  condition 
of  his  family  being  restored,  he  would  himself  make  amends 
in  person  on  his  knees,  after  which  he  would  retire  with  a 
moderate  pension  as  an  exile  to  Holland  or  to  England. 
Who  could  then  have  foreseen  that  he  was  to  become  the 
ancestor  of  the  rulers  of  three  of  the  greatest  European 
realms  ?  of  the  house  of  Hanover,  which  reigns  in  England ; 
of  the  house  of  Orleans,  which  reigned  in  France ;  and  of 
the  house  of  Lorraine,  which  sits  on  the  throne  of  Austria. 
The  beautiful   "  Winter  Queen "   EHzabeth  survived   until 


352  FERDINAND     II. 

1662,  when  she  died  in  the  palace  of  her  nephew  Charles  II. 
of  England. 

For  Germany  the  death  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  was  a 
decisive  turning-point.  His  life  was  cut  short  in  the  midst  of 
a  brilliant  career  of  victory,  in  which  he  had  acquired  by 
conquest  considerable  parts  of  the  territories  of  the  German 
Empire.  Pomerania,  Mecklenburg,  the  archbishopric  of 
Magdeburg  and  the  bishoprics  of  Halberstadt,  Hildesheim, 
Bamberg,  Würtzburg,  Mayence,  Spires,  Worms,  and  Augs- 
burg, the  Palatinate,  and  part  of  Bavaria  and  Swabia,  were 
in  his  hands.  He  had  already  conceived  the  idea  of  causing 
himself  to  be  elected  "  King  of  the  Romans."  With  this 
creation  of  a  fresh,  energetic  Protestant  head  of  the  decrepit 
body  of  the  German  Empire,  not  only  the  Protestant  cause 
would  have  been  secured,  but  also  the  whole  political  life  of 
the  German  nation  would  have  taken  a  new  and  more 
vigorous  start  than  it  has  afterwards  had,  and  could  only 
have  had  under  the  weak  and  phlegmatic  rule  of  the  Papist 
Austrian  Emperors.^  Germany  was  an  elective  Empire,  not 
an  hereditary  demesne  of  the  house  of  Habsburg ;  and  it 
was  the  cherished  plan  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  to  marry  his 
only  child  Christina  to  that  son  of  the  Elector  of  Brandenburg 
who  afterwards  earned  the  name  of  "  The  Great  Elector." 
This  son-in-law  would,  in  all  probability,  have  succeeded  after 
Gustavus  Adolphus  to  the  imperial  crown  of  Germany. 

9. — Wallenstein's  downfall — Rewards  bestowed  on  his  betrayers  and 
murderers — Piccolomini,  Aldringer,  Colloredo,  Butler,  Leslie,  S'C. 

After  the  death  of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  the  Swedish  chan- 
cellor Axel  Oxenstierna  was  placed  at  the  head  of  affairs.  As 
the  King  had  been  one  of  the  greatest  captains,  so  the  chan- 
cellor was  one  of  the  greatest  statesmen.  He  forthwith 
applied  to  the  Protestant  Electors  of  Saxony  and  Branden- 
burg, engaging  them  to  conclude  with  him  a  new  and  still 
closer  alliance.  On  their  refusal,  he  at  last  entered  with  the 
States  of  the  four  Southern  Circles  of  the  Empire,  on  the 
13th  of  April,  1633,  into  the  League  of  Heilbronn,  in  which  a 

1  The  reader  will  remember  this  work  was  written  about  1852. 


WALLENSTEIN  S     INTRIGUES  353 

so-called  concilium  formatiim,  consisting  of  the  councillors  of 
the  allied  princes,  was  joined  to  him.  Oxenstierna,  more- 
over, secured  the  continuance  of  the  French  subsidies.  The 
Swedish-German  army  was  placed  under  the  command  of 
Duke  Bernard  of  Weimar,  who  at  once  drove  the  Friedland 
garrisons  from  the  electorate  of  Saxony,  conquered  Franconia, 
established  himself  in  the  Upper  Rhine,  and  from  thence 
harassed  Bavaria.  As  a  reward,  the  duchy  of  Franconia — 
the  bishoprics  of  Würzburg  and  Bamberg — was  given  to 
him ;  and  Erfurt  with  Eichsfeld  to  his  brother  William.  At 
the  same  time,  Gustavus  Horn,  Oxenstierna's  son-in-law, 
together  with  Duke  George  of  Lüneburg,  swept  the  other 
imperialist  troops  from  their  scattered  positions  all  over  Ger- 
many ;  for  which  achievement  Mergentheim,  the  principal 
seat  of  the  Teutonic  order,  was  given  to  the  Swedish  field- 
marshal  ;  and  George  of  Lüneburg  appropriated  as  his  prize 
the  territory  of  the  bishopric  of  Hildesheim. 

Whilst  all  this  was  going  on,  Wallenstein  remained  quiet 
in  his  winter  quarters  in  Bohemia,  increasing  his  army  again 
to  the  strength  of  40,000  men.  About  the  middle  of  May 
he  set  out  again  for  Prague.  His  departure  for  the  field  was 
effected  with  his  usual  princely  pomp,  the  procession  con- 
sisting of  fourteen  carriages,  each  drawn  by  six  horses.  He 
was  attended  by  forty  cavaliers  of  his  household ;  by  twelve 
footmen  dressed,  like  all  his  servants,  in  new  scarlet  and  blue 
liveries;  and  by  twelve  trumpeters  with  silver-gilt  trumpets. 
Wallenstein,  first  of  all,  reconquered  Silesia  for  the  Emperor; 
but,  as  early  as  the  7th  of  June,  1633,  he  concluded  a  truce 
for  a  fortnight  with  the  Saxon  field-marshal  Arnim,  with 
whom  he  entered  into  negotiations.  It  was  evidently  neither 
more  nor  less  than  his  own  well-considered  interest,  in  con- 
junction with  Saxony,  to  urge  the  Emperor  to  conclude  a 
reasonable  peace,  which  would  have  given  him  as  strong  a 
claim  to  be  remunerated  by  Ferdinand  as  any  successful 
military  operation  could  have  done.  The  Elector  of  Saxony 
himself  began,  in  July,  1633,  under  the  mediation  of  Denmark, 
to  negotiate  with  the  Emperor ;  but  the  transaction  led  to  no 
result. 

VOL.  I  23 


354 


FERDINAND     II. 


On  the  1 2th  (22nd)  of  August  Wallenstein  concluded  a 
second  truce  with  Arnim  for  four  weeks.  As  late  as  in 
October  the  negotiations  between  Wallenstein  and  the  two 
Electors  of  Saxony  and  Brandenburg  were  still  in  full  opera- 
tion. According  to  the  Venetian  Gualdo,  a  contemporary  and 
eye-witness  of  all  that  then  happened,  it  was  the  avowed  plan 
of  the  two  Electors  and  of  Wallenstein  to  establish  a  third 
power  in  the  Empire,  as  a  medium  between  the  Emperor  and 
the  Swedes.  In  October,  1633,  at  the  camp  near  Schweid- 
nitz.  Wallenstein  appears  to  have  been  perfectly  in  earnest 
with  regard  to  the  conclusion  of  an  alliance  for  such  a  pur- 
pose, to  which  the  Electors  showed  themselves  not  less 
inclined.  Khevenhüller  expressly  states  that  Duke  Francis 
Albert  of  Saxe-Lauenburg — who,  after  the  battle  of  Lützen, 
entered  the  Saxon  service,  and  through  whom  the  negotia- 
tions in  the  camp  of  Schweidnitz  were  carried  on — had 
asserted  that  Wallenstein  had  it  there  completely  in  his 
power  to  bring  about  a  peace.  A  report,  certainly  an  un- 
warranted one,  was  then  current  that  all  the  exiles  should 
receive  back  their  estates,  the  Jesuits  be  expelled  the  Empire, 
and  the  Swedes  should  have  their  expenses  of  the  war  repaid 
to  them,  until  which  term  they  might  keep  possession  of  the 
fortresses  which  they  occupied.  Khevenhüller,  indeed — but 
on  the  sole  authority  of  a  pamphlet  of  1633,  which  he  has 
embodied  almost  word  for  word  in  his  "  Annals " — states 
further  that  Wallenstein,  in  a  secret  additional  clause,  had 
claimed  the  crown  of  Bohemia,  with  Moravia,  for  himself. 
The  Elector  of  Saxony,  on  the  other  hand,  demanded  in 
the  same  treaties  the  two  Lusatias  and  one-half  of  Bohemia. 
According  to  the  documents  communicated  by  Helbig  from 
the  Dresden  archives  in  his  small  pamphlet  "  Wallenstein 
and  Arnim,"  Wallenstein  demanded,  in  addition  to  Mecklen- 
burg, the  Rhenish  Palatinate.  Both  parties  seem  to  have 
bidden  very  high  on  purpose,  in  order  that,  although  obliged 
to  abate  from  their  demands,  they  might  still  get  as  much  as 
they  really  wanted.  The  Duke  of  Saxe-Lauenburg  having 
asked  Wallenstein  in  the  camp  of  Schweidnitz,  "  What 
would    become    of    the    Swedes  ? "    Wallenstein    answered 


WALLENSTEIN  S     INTRIGUES  355 

that  they  must  "  all  join  to  kick  the  Swedes  out  of  the 
country."  The  Electors,  however,  were  afraid,  and  perhaps 
not  without  reason,  of  ulterior  designs  of  Wallenstein,  who, 
after  having  in  conjunction  with  them  driven  out  the  Swedes, 
might  turn  his  arms  against  themselves.  However  that  may 
be,  Arnim,  who  had  been  deep  in  Wallenstein's  confidence, 
continued  to  maintain,  even  after  the  dictator's  catastrophe, 
that  Wallenstein  had  been  in  earnest,  and  that  it  was  his  real 
policy  and  intention,  with  the  help  of  Saxony  and  Branden- 
burg, to  induce  the  Emperor  to  conclude  a  fair  peace. 

Certain  it  is  that  Wallenstein,  at  the  very  same  time,  was 
also  negotiating  with  France  about  the  crown  of  Bohemia, 
and  it  is  very  probable  that  he  was  likewise  in  correspondence 
with  the  Bohemian  exiles.  Richelieu  had  gained  a  firm  hold 
on  the  German  affairs.  On  the  23rd  of  May,  1631,  the 
Elector  Maximilian  of  Bavaria  concluded  a  defensive  alliance 
with  the  crown  of  France  for  eight  years.  Ever  since  the 
9th  of  July,  1632,  a  French  garrison  had  been  occupying 
Ehrenbreitstein,  which  was  given  up  to  them  by  the  Elector 
of  Treves,  the  celebrated  Philip  Christopher  Sötern,  whom 
the  house  of  Habsburg  afterwards  kept  a  prisoner  for  ten 
years.  The  negotiations  with  France — as  Wallenstein  gene- 
rally used  the  precaution  of  not  committing  himself  in  writing 
— were  carried  on  through  Count  William  Kinsky,  one  of 
the  exiled  Bohemian  Protestant  lords,  and  brother-in-law  of 
Wallenstein's  brother-in-law  Count  Adam  Erdmann  Terzka. 
Kinsky  treated  in  Dresden  with  the  then  resident  French 
minister,  the  Marquis  de  Feuquieres,  a  nephew  of  Father 
Joseph.  Through  Feuquieres,  who  left  Paris  as  ambassador- 
extraordinary  on  the  8th  of  February,  1633,  and  arrived  on 
the  19th  of  May  at  Dresden,  Cardinal  Richelieu  made  to 
Wallenstein,  who  was  then  stationed  at  Breslau,  the  offer 
of  1,000,000  livres  a  year  and  the  crown  of  Bohemia,  if  he 
would  desert  from  the  Emperor.  On  the  29th  of  September, 
1633,  the  Elector  of  Treves,  as  is  stated  by  the  "  Rhenish 
Antiquary"  (Baron  Stramberg),  was  apprised  of  Wallen- 
stein's impending  desertion.  But  already  at  the  end  of  that 
same  year,  Feuquieres  broke  off  the  negotiations,  confessing 

23—2 


Z5^ 


FERDINAND     II. 


himself  to  have  been  duped  by  Wallenstein,  whose  only  object  had  been 
to  set  the  enemies  of  the  Emperor  by  the  ears. 

Whilst    the   negotiations   were   going  on    with   the   two 
Electors    of    Saxony   and    Brandenburg    and   with    France, 
Wallenstein   entered   into   a   correspondence   also   with    the 
Swedes.     At  first  it  was  Arnim  who  carried  on  the  trans- 
actions with  Oxenstierna,  to  whom  he  went,  after  the  con- 
clusion of  the  second  truce  in  August,  at  Gelnhausen,  near 
Frankfort,  where  he  conferred  with  him  on  the  ist  (nth)  of 
September.     Afterwards  the  negotiations  went  through  the 
chief  of   the   Bohemian    refugees,    Count    Henry   Matthias 
Thurn,  whom  Wallenstein  had  made  prisoner,  with  a  great 
number  of  other  commanders,  on  the  nth  of  October  of  the 
preceding  year,  near  Stenau  on  the  Oder,  in  Silesia,  but,  to 
the  great  displeasure  of  the  court  of  Vienna,  had  released  as 
soon  as  they  had  surrendered  the  Silesian  towns,  until  then 
occupied  by  them.     Wallenstein,  moreover,  negotiated  with 
Duke   Bernard   of  Saxe-Weimar.     To   the   Swedes   he   ex- 
pressed  himself  thus  :  that  he  knew  very  sure  means  and 
ways  to  force  the  Emperor  to  conclude  a  fair  peace.     Oxen- 
stierna, however,  trusted  him  just  as  little  as  the  two  Electors 
and  the  French  ambassador  had  done.     On  receiving  the  first 
intimation,  the  chancellor   became,  to  use  the  words  of  the 
Swedish  historian  Chemnitz,  "  quite  perplexed."     He  wrote, 
on  the  28th  of  December,   1633,  to  the  Elector  of  Saxony, 
"  Although  the  last  negotiations  were  more  satisfactory  in 
appearance,  yet  the  offers  were  too  great  and  extraordinary, 
so  that  I  could  not  but  suppose  that  there  was  some  deceit 
lurking  underneath." 

It  is  quite  possible  that  Wallenstein  only  played  a 
Machiavellian  game,  if  not  with  all  the  parties — not  with 
Saxony  and  Brandenburg — yet  with  Sweden  and  France ; 
and  likewise  he  may  possibly  have  diplomatised  in  reality 
only  for  the  Emperor's  interest,  as  long  as  he  was  sure  that 
he  was  still  favourably  looked  upon  at  the  court  of  Vienna. 
But,  having  once  entered  into  negotiations  with  the  enemy, 
he  availed  himself  of  the  connection  with  them  when  his  own 
safety  was  at  stake. 


ALDRINGER     GAINED     OVER     BY    THE     COURT  357 

The  actual  disagreement  between  him  and  the  imperial 
court  came  to  a  head  when,  contrary  to  the  Emperor's  wish, 
he  did  not  march  to  the  assistance  of  Bavaria  against  Duke 
Bernard.  The  latter  had,  in  the  autumn  of  the  year  1633, 
taken  the  important  city  of  Ratisbon,  besides  Straubing  and 
other  Bavarian  towns.  Duke  Maximilian  therefore  entreated 
the  Emperor  to  induce  Wallenstein  to  lead  his  troops  from 
Silesia  to  Bavaria.  Instead  of  doing  so.  Wallenstein  led  the 
army  from  Silesia  into  winter  quarters  in  Bohemia,  merely 
sending  from  Pilsen  to  Vienna  a  letter,  in  which  the  opinion 
of  his  commanders  was  set  forth,  that  the  march  to  Ratisbon 
in  winter  time  was  a  downright  impossibility. 

On  this,  Maximilian  of  Bavaria,  at  the  head  of  Wallen- 
stein's  enemies,  moved  heaven  and  earth  at  the  court  of 
Vienna  to  bring  about  the  downfall  of  the  hateful  adversary. 
And  the  moment  for  doing  so  was  very  well  chosen. 

The  Emperor — especially  since  the  death  of  Gustavus 
Adolphus  seemed  to  have  rid  him  of  the  greatest  danger — 
felt  the  contract  with  Wallenstein  more  and  more  as  an 
irksome  burden.  He  openly  complained  that  he  had,  as 
it  were,  a  co-rex,  a  colleague  in  his  kingly  office;  and  that 
he  could  no  longer  freely  act  as  he  pleased  in  his  own 
country. 

The  cabinet  of  Vienna  first  broke  the  contract  with 
Wallenstein,  under  the  pressure  of  the  manifest  necessity 
of  having  Duke  Bernard  of  Weimar  driven  from  Ratisbon 
and  the  Danube.  Wallenstein  having  asserted  his  inability 
to  effect  this,  they  called  from  Italy  the  Duke  of  Feria,  the 
Spanish  viceroy  of  Milan,  orders  being  despatched  at  the 
same  time  to  John  Aldringer,  a  general  of  Wallenstein's 
and  brother-in-law  of  Gallas,  to  join  with  his  troops,  which 
were  stationed  at  Swabia,  those  of  Feria,  who  was  to  advance 
from  the  Tyrol.  To  the  Bavarian  court,  in  whose  behalf 
alone  this  succour  had  been  summoned,  the  promise  was 
also  given,  that  Wallenotein  should  for  the  second  time 
be  dismissed  from  his  command.  Aldringer,  who  until  then 
had  been  faithful  to  Wallenstein,  at  first  hesitated  ;  but,  on 
the  death  of  Feria,  which  took  place  before  the  year   1633 


358  FERDINAND     II. 

was  quite  past,  he,  true  to  his  character  of  following  that 
side  which  held  out  the  greatest  advantage  to  him,  allowed 
himself  to  be  gained  over  by  the  court.  Wallenstein,  furious 
at  his  conduct,  summoned  him  to  head-quarters  to  cashier 
him,  but  Aldringer  refused  obedience. 

Wallenstein  was  at  that  time  so  severely  tortured  by  the 
gout  as  to  be  obliged  to  pass  one  hour  every  day  in  the 
vapour  bath  ;  besides  which  he  had  to  undergo  the  most 
painful  operations  in  his  legs.  He  now,  in  order  not  to  be 
deposed  a  second  time,  resolved  upon  voluntarily  resigning 
the  chief  command,  but  previously  placing  himself  in  a 
position  in  which  he  might  enforce  the  fulfilment  of  the  con- 
ditions granted  to  him  in  his  contract.  For  this  purpose  he 
assembled  in  his  camp  at  Pilsen  all  the  generals  and  com- 
manders of  the  troops  stationed  in  Bohemia,  Moravia,  and 
Silesia.  On  the  12th  of  January,  1634,  Field-marshal  Illo 
gave  them  a  banquet,  at  which,  as  a  Bavarian  agent  wrote 
from  Pilsen,  the  merriment  was  so  riotous  that  the  gentlemen, 
"after  having  had  their  fill  of  wine,  began  to  smash  the 
stoves,  windows,  chairs,  and  benches."  In  pursuance  of  a 
plan  preconcerted  with  Wallenstein,  Illo  and  Count  Terzka 
set  forth  most  emphatically  that  the  commander-in-chief,  on 
account  of  the  injustice  inflicted  on  him  by  the  court,  and  on 
account  of  his  miserable  state  of  health,  was  resolved  upon 
resigning  the  command.  The  officers  stood  aghast  at  this 
unexpected  intelligence.  The  generals  and  colonels  had 
raised  their  regiments  at  their  own  cost,  and  invested  their 
fortunes  therein,  solely  in  reliance  on  Wallenstein's  word,  and 
in  the  hope  of  getting  reimbursed  through  his  interest ;  they 
therefore  were  afraid  of  being  ruined  themselves  by  the  ruin 
of  Wallenstein.  A  bond  was  now  laid  before  them  to  be 
signed,  for  the  duke's  security  and  for  their  own,  in  which 
they  pledged  themselves  to  *'  stand  by  the  duke  to  the  shed- 
ding of  their  last  drop  of  blood,  and  to  persecute  anyone  who 
would  separate  from  them,  and  to  take  revenge  on  his  person 
or  estates  as  a  faithless  and  dishonoured  traitor." 

Forty   generals    and    commanders,    German    as    well   as 
Italian,  signed  this  very  remarkable  bond.     Among  the  latter 


PICCOLOMINI  359 

was  the  treacherous  friend  of  Wallenstein,  Piccolomini,  who 
stood  at  the  head  of  the  Italian  party  at  the  imperial  court. 
This  party — now  in  conjunction  with  the  Jesuits,  who  had 
become  Wallenstein's  bitterest  enemies,  and  with  the  Spanish 
ambassador.  Count  Ognate — had  gained  the  victory  over  the 
German  party,  which  was  headed  by  Prince  Eggenberg. 
The  latter,  a  friend  of  the  dictator,  zealously  defended  his 
interest  to  the  last,  and,  although  having  ultimately  aban- 
doned him  to  the  Emperor's  anger,  was  himself  involved 
in  his  downfall. 

Ottavio  Piccolomini  was  descended  from  a  Siennese 
family  which  has  become  illustrious  through  Pope  ^Eneas 
Sylvius  Piccolomini,  who,  as  Pius  II.,  ascended  the  papal 
chair  in  1458.  Ottavio  had  come  to  Germany  in  161 5,  as 
captain  in  a  regiment  raised  by  the  Grand  Duke  of  Florence 
for  the  Emperor  Ferdinand.  After  the  death  of  Dampierre, 
who  commanded  it,  he  became  its  colonel.  Piccolomini 
enjoyed  the  most  unbounded  confidence  of  Wallenstein, 
who  imagined  he  had  read  in  the  stars  that  he  might  place 
his  full  and  entire  reliance  on  him.  Being,  like  Aldringer, 
shrewd  enough  to  foresee  that  he  would  rise  by  Wallenstein's 
fall,  he  reported  the  substance  of  the  bond  signed  at  Illo's 
banquet  to  Vienna,  and  took  good  care  to  charge  the  duke 
with  an  actual  dangerous  conspiracy. 

Ferdinand — as  is  manifest  from  the  recently  published  ^ 
reports  of  the  privy-councillor  Bernard  Richel,  the  Bavarian 
minister  resident  at  Vienna — was  regularly  and  fully  informed 
of  every  step  of  Wallenstein.  The  Duke  of  Savoy  especially 
had  sent  in  to  Vienna  a  full  account  of  Wallenstein's  trans- 
action with  the  French  court.  The  Emperor  discussed  the 
affair  with  his  select  council,  which  became  the  first  nucleus 
of  that  confidential  board  which  afterwards,  under  Leopold  I., 
was  formally  organised  under  the  name  of  the  Conference 
Council.  The  persons  let  into  the  secret  were  Prince  Eggen- 
berg,    Count    Maximihan    Trautmannsdorf,    Bishop   Antony 

*  They  are  contained  in  Büchner  and  Zierl,  Neue  Beiträge  zur 
Vaterländischen  Geschichte  (New  Materials  for  National  History),  1832, 
vol.  i. 


360  FERDINAND     II. 

Wolffrath  of  Vienna,  the  confessor  Father  Lamormain,  the 
Spanish  ambassador  Count  Ognate,  Count  Schlick,  president 
of  the  AuHc  Council  of  War,  and  Marchese  Francis  Antony 
Caretto  di  Grana,  to  whom  besides  we  must  add  the  Em- 
peror's eldest  son  Ferdinand  III.  The  most  outrageous  plans 
were  imputed  to  the  Friedländer.  He  was  said  to  have 
expressed  himself  thus :  "  I  do  not  care  for  God,  and  still 
less  will  I  care  for  Ferdinand." 

The  Italian-Spanish-Jesuit  party,  which  had  long  sworn 
the  ruin  of  Wallenstein,  egged  the  Emperor  on.  The  Spanish 
ambassador  called  out,  "  Why  hesitate  ?  A  stab  of  a  dagger 
or  a  pistol-shot  will  effectually  settle  the  matter."  Thus 
Ferdinand  was  induced  not  only  to  pronounce  for  the  second 
time  the  dismissal  of  Wallenstein,  but  also  to  abandon  him, 
who  had  been  the  saviour  of  the  monarchy,  to  the  revenge  of 
the  party  which  sought  his  ruin.  How  far  those  people — 
those  Italian  informers  and  envious  detractors  of  Wallenstein 
— went  in  their  infamous  avarice  and  covetousness,  which  was 
the  prime  motive  in  bringing  about  such  a  speedy  catastrophe, 
is  sufficiently  proved  by  the  fact  that,  when  the  dismissal  was 
yet  a  profound  secret,  they  began  to  quarrel  and  even  to  fight 
duels  about  the  division  of  the  booty,  the  estates,  houses,  and 
gardens,  even  the  carriages  and  horses,  of  Wallenstein  ;  nay, 
with  the  most  brazen  effrontery,  they  tried  to  make  the  court 
umpire  of  these  quarrels. 

The  court  proceeded  against  its  dangerous  adversary  with 
consummate  dexterity  and  astuteness.  As  early  as  on  the 
24th  of  January,  1634,  Ferdinand  announced  by  a  memo- 
randum to  all  the  high  and  low  commanders  the  dismissal  of 
the  commander-in-chief  with  the  words,  "that  from  most 
weighty  and  pressing  reasons  his  Majesty  had  felt  induced  to 
make  a  change  with  regard  to  him."  He  released  all  the 
generals  and  commanders  "  from  every  obligation  by  which 
they  had  hitherto  been  bound  to  the  Duke  of  Friedland  ;  " 
referring  them,  until  further  orders,  to  his  beloved  and  trust- 
worthy Lieutenant-general  Count  Matthias  Gallas,  and  offering 
a  full  pardon  and  amnesty  to  all  except  Wallenstein  and  two 
other  persons.     In  addition  to  this  the  Emperor  promised 


THE     emperor's     PROCLAMATION  361 

favours  and  rewards  to  all  those  who  would  faithfully  serve 
him,  and  assured  the  soldiers  that  he  would  take  every  care 
that  they  should  want  for  nothing. 

Even  as  late  as  one-and-twenty  days  after  issuing  this 
memorandum  the  Emperor  corresponded  about  official  matters 
with  Wallenstein,  caUing  him,  as  before,  "  Illustrious  dear 
uncle  and  prince,"  and  endorsing  the  letter,  "  To  the  Duke  of 
Mecklenburg,"  &c. 

The  principal  question  at  Vienna  was  how  to  win  over  the 
generals  and  commanders  singly  and  with  the  greatest  secrecy. 
The  Italian,  Spanish,  and  Walloon  officers  were  the  first 
applied  to  ;  the  Germans,  Bohemians,  Moravians,  and 
Silesians  were  too  much  attached  to  Wallenstein  to  be  trusted 
with  the  secret.  The  imperial  memorandum,  therefore,  only 
offered  an  amnesty  to  all  except  lUo  and  Terzka.  To  those 
commanders  who  were  taken  into  the  confidence,  Prague  was 
pointed  out  as  the  general  rendezvous ;  and  thither  Wallen- 
stein afterwards  likewise  gave  orders  to  his  regiments  sta- 
tioned in  Silesia  to  march,  both  parties  having  an  equally 
strong  interest  to  secure  the  capital  of  Bohemia. 

One  month  nearly  passed  away  before  the  first  imperial 
memorandum  was  followed  by  a  second,  the  language  of 
which  was  already  much  more  explicit  and  severe,  as  in  the 
meanwhile  several  more  generals  had  been  gained  over.  It 
was  dated  the  i8th  of  February,  1634,  and  directed  not  only  to 
the  commanders,  but  also  to  all  the  private  soldiers.  The 
Emperor  states  in  it  that,  according  to  most  reliable  in- 
formation. Wallenstein  had  intended  to  drive  him  and  his 
family  from  his  hereditary  kingdoms,  and  to  appropriate  his 
crown  and  sceptre  to  himself — nay,  entirely  to  annihilate  the 
Emperor  and  his  imperial  house ;  for  which  purpose  he  had 
tried  to  seduce  his  Majesty's  faithful  generals,  commanders, 
and  officers,  to  make  them  the  tools  of  his  wicked  intentions, 
and  thereby  to  rob  them  of  their  honour  and  their  reputa- 
tion. Ferdinand  thereupon,  "for  the  safety  of  himself  and 
his  house,"  refers  the  army,  until  the  appointment  of  a  new 
commander-in-chief,  to  the  generals  already  gained  over :  to 
Gallas,  as   lieutenant-commander-in-chief ;    and,  besides,  to 


362  FERDINAND    II. 

Aldringer,  Maradas,  Piccolomini,  and  Colloredo,  In  con- 
clusion, the  Emperor  assured  the  officers  and  soldiers  that 
until  then  he  had,  for  the  benefit  of  his  army,  assigned  many 
considerable  sums  of  money  to  his  former  generalissimo ;  and 
that  henceforth,  also,  it  would  be  his  care  to  find  out  ways 
and  means  how  not  only  to  maintain  and  remunerate  them, 
but  also,  ere  long,  to  bestow  on  them  imperial  favours  which  would 
he  sure  to  gladden  their  hearts. 

This  last  assurance  was  a  very  plain  allusion  to  the  estates 
which  were  intended  to  be  confiscated  from  the  rich  victim, 
and  which  certainly  again  supplied  the  Emperor  with  means 
for  maintaining  and  rewarding  the  army. 

Wallenstein  was  only  made  aware  of  the  true  state  of 
affairs  when  Gallas,  Aldringer,  Maradas,  Piccolomini,  and 
Colloredo,  after  the  13th  of  February,  issued  orders  in  which 
they  forbade  the  colonels  serving  under  them  to  obey  in  future 
any  commands  either  of  Wallenstein  or  of  Illo  and  Terzka. 
The  first  of  these  orders  was  issued  and  signed  by  Gallas. 

The  commanders,  as  has  been  stated  before,  received 
orders  to  march  upon  Prague,  to  secure  the  capital  of 
Bohemia  to  Ferdinand.  Wallenstein  now  had,  on  the  20th  of 
February,  a  solemn  declaration  prepared,  to  which  he  himself 
and  twenty-nine  generals  put  their  signatures,  setting  forth 
that  the  former  bond  ^^  meant  nothing  whatever  against  the  Emperor 
or  against  religion.""  He  likewise  ordered  the  troops  to  Prague, 
appointing  the  24th  of  February  as  the  day  of  their  arrival  on 
the  White  Mountain.  As  late  as  the  21st  of  February,  he 
sent  Colonels  Mohrwald  and  Brenner  to  the  Emperor,  to 
whom  he  offered  to  retire  to  Hamburg  or  Dantzig,  only  stipu- 
lating "that  he  should  be  allowed  to  retain  his  duchies."  But 
those  duchies  were  the  very  thing  which  they  also  coveted  at 
Vienna.  On  the  20th  of  February,  Ferdinand  had  already 
issued  to  Gallas,  Colloredo,  and  De  Suys  the  warrants  for 
the  confiscation  of  the  property  and  estates  of  Wallenstein, 
Terzka,  and  Illo,  "for  the  especial  use  and  benefit  of  the  armyJ" 

Wallenstein  was  fully  aware  of  this  ;  he  therefore  deter- 
mined to  guard  against  any  emergency  except  the  one  which 
he  did   not   and   could  not   foresee,   as    it   was   beyond   all 


WALLENSTEIN    AND     DUKE     BERNARD  363 

calculation.  Being  himself  placed  in  imminent  peril,  and 
forced  to  provide  for  his  own  safety,  he  now,  and  for  the 
first  time  seriously,  applied  to  the  Duke  Bernard  of  Weimar, 
who  had  his  head-quarters  at  Ratisbon.  He  called  upon 
him  to  advance  as  speedily  as  possible  with  his  troops 
through  the  Upper  Palatinate  to  the  Bohemian  frontier. 
The  rendezvous  should  be  at  Eger,  whither  also  Arnim,  the 
Saxon  general,  who  was  posted  at  Zwickau  and  had  likewise 
been  summoned  by  Wallenstein,  'was  to  march  his  troops. 
Duke  Bernard,  however,  remembering  "  how  many  a  man 
the  Friedländer  had  thrown  overboard,"  could  not  make  up 
his  mind.  He  called  out,  "  He  who  does  not  believe  in  God 
cannot  be  trusted  by  man."  And  yet  there  was  not  a 
moment  to  be  lost.  Wallenstein  was  apprised  of  the  deser- 
tion of  one  general  after  the  other.  Aldringer  sent  from 
Frauenberg,  excusing  himself  under  the  plea  of  illness ; 
Gallas,  his  brother-in-law,  who  was  with  him,  did  not  return 
either ;  and  Colonel  Diodati  had  absconded  from  Pilsen 
without  leave  from  the  generalissimo.  Thirteen  couriers 
hurried  to  Ratisbon  and  back.  At  last  Duke  Bernard  got 
his  troops  in  marching  order,  but  with  the  greatest  caution. 
The  negotiations  between  the  two  parties  were  carried  on 
by  Duke  Francis  Albert  of  Saxe-Lauenburg,  who,  on  the 
second  day  after  the  catastrophe,  was  going  to  return  from 
Weiden  to  the  Upper  Palatinate,  but  was  captured  by  a 
stratagem  of  the  Croats,  at  Tirschenreit  near  Eger.  The 
lieutenant  who  commanded  them,  pretended  to  be  sent  by 
Terzka  to  escort  Duke  Francis  Albert  to  Eger,  and  the 
latter,  falling  into  the  snare,  let  out  in  the  conversation 
with  him,  "  that  Wallenstein,  with  Pilsen,  Gross-Glogau,  Frank- 
fort on  the  Oder,  and  Landsberg,  which  would  be  lefl  to  him,  might 
consider  himself  perfectly  safe ;  6,000  Swedes  and  4,000  Saxons 
were  marching  on  Eger." 

Wallenstein's  original  plan,  which,  according  to  Kheven- 
hüUer,  had  been  to  betake  himself  to  Prague,  was  baffled 
by  the  desertion  of  the  generals ;  he  was  also  obliged  to  give 
up  another  plan,  of  marching  to  Zittau,  in  order  to  be  nearer 
to  his  Bohemian  possessions  and  to  Silesia.     After  these  dis- 


364  FERDINAND     II. 

appointments,  he,  as  has  been  stated  before,  fixed  upon  Egei 
as  the  place  for  the  Swedes  to  join  him. 

Wallenstein  left  Pilsen  for  Eger,  a  fortress  on  the  Bo- 
hemian frontier,  on  the  22nd  of  February,  1634,  about  ten 
o'clock  in  the  morning.  The  first  night  he  slept  at  Mies, 
which  belonged  to  his  faithful  field-marshal.  Christian  Illo.^ 

Wallenstein  was  accompanied  by  Field-marshal  Illo  and 
by  his  own  brother-in-law,  Adam  Terzka.  There  were  with 
them  five  troops  of  Terzka's  cuirassiers;  five  troops  of  the 
Old  Saxon  regiment  of  horse,  which  deserted  on  the  road  and 
went  to  Prague  ;  and  200  men  of  the  Old  Saxon  foot  regi- 
ment under  Duke  Julius  Henry  of  Saxe-Lauenberg.  William 
Kinsky,  Terzka's  brother-in-law,  was  likewise  in  his  suite. 
From  Pilsen,  Wallenstein,  on  account  of  his  gout,  made  the 
journey  in  a  litter  carried  by  two  horses.  Before  reaching  his 
first  night-quarters,  he  was  joined  by  the  man  who  became 
his  murderer,  Colonel  Walter  Butler,  with  eight  companies 
of  dragoons. 

Butler  was  a  native  of  Ireland  and  a  Papist.  Wallenstein 
had  sent  to  him  from  Pilsen  to  Kladrup,  where  the  colonel 
was  stationed,  the  order,  under  pain  of  death,  to  march  with 
his  regiment  to  Prague.  This  arrangement,  which  left  the 
passes  leading  from  the  Upper  Palatinate  to  Bohemia  un- 
defended, had  roused  Butler's  suspicions.  He  therefore  wrote 
to  Gallas  that  if  Arnim  should  approach  Eger  within  two 
leagues,  he  (Butler)  would  either  take  prisoner  or  kill  the 
traitor  (Wallenstein).  As,  on  his  march  from  Kladrup  to 
Prague,  he  fell  in  with  Wallenstein  before  Mies,  he  received 
a  new  order  to  follow  the  generalissimo  to  Eger ;  and  he  had 
with  his  dragoons  to  march  before  Wallenstein's  litter,  together 
with  Terzka's  cuirassiers  and  the  Old  Saxons.  At  the  first 
night-quarters  at  Mies,  and  at  the  second,  on  the  23rd  of 
February,  at  Plan,  Butler  received  orders,  contrary  to  the 
usage  of  war,  to  remain  with  the  colours  and  standards 
within  the  town,  whilst  the  soldiers  were  encamped  outside 

^  Illo,  whose  name  is  likewise  spelled  How  and  also  lUau,  was  a  Bran- 
denburger, and  son-in-law  to  the  president  of  the  Aulic  Council  of  the 
Empire,  Count  Vratislaw  von  Fürstenberg. 


COLONEL  WALTER  BUTLER  365 

the  walls.  This  precaution  increased  Butler's  suspicions ;  he 
sent  from  Plan  his  chaplain,  Patrick  Taaffe,  whose  report 
is  still  extant,  to  Gallas  or  Piccolomini,  **  wherever  they  are 
to  be  found  " ;  entrusting  him  with  a  few  lines  in  English, 
written  by  his  own  hand,  and  with  the  verbal  message  that 
he  marched  with  Wallenstein  only  from  compulsion  ;  but  that 
perhaps  he  was  forced  on  in  this  way  by  a  special  providence 
of  God  to  achieve  some  particular  heroic  deed.  Father  Taaffe  with 
this  message  went  from  Plan  to  Pilsen,  where  Piccolomini, 
immediately  after  Wallenstein's  departure,  had  established 
himself  by  stratagem.  Gallas,  on  the  22nd  of  February,  stood 
at  Linz.  Maradas  on  that  day  was  at  Frauenberg,  which 
belonged  to  him ;  but  advanced  from  thence  to  Horasdiowitz, 
which  Piccolomini  had  left.  Maradas  had  secured  Budweis 
and  Tabor,  and  despatched  Lieutenant-field-marshal  Baron  de 
Suys  to  Prague  to  maintain  the  troops  there  in  the  allegiance 
of  the  Emperor.     Aldringer  was  at  Vienna. 

During  the  last  day's  march  between  Plan  and  Eger, 
Wallenstein  sent  for  Butler  to  his  litter,  apologised  for  not 
having  until  then  done  more  for  him,  and  promised  him  two 
regiments,  besides  a  present  of  200,000  crowns.  Wallenstein 
made  his  entry  into  Eger  on  the  24th  of  February  in  the 
afternoon,  between  four  and  five  o'clock.  Again  was  Butler 
quartered  with  the  standards  within  the  town,  and  his  dragoons 
encamped  outside  in  the  open  field.  Wallenstein  took  up  his 
quarters  in  the  market-place,  at  the  house  of  the  burgomaster 
Pachhälbel;^  Terzka  and  Kinsky,  with  their  wives,  put  up  at 
the  outbuildings  of  the  same  house. 

The  post  of  commandant  of  Eger  was  held  by  John  Gordon, 
a  Scotch  Calvinist  and  a  lieutenant-colonel  in  Terzka's  infantry 
regiment.  To  this  officer,  whom  Wallenstein,  after  his  arrival 
only,  had  promoted  to  the  rank  of  colonel,  Butler  made  the 
first  overtures.  The  two  then  took  into  their  confidence  Walter 
Leslie,  major  in  Terzka's  regiment,  whom  Gordon  had  sent  as 
far  as  Plan  to  meet  the  duke.      Leslie,  like  Gordon,  was  a 

1  There  are  descendants  of  this  Bohemian  family  still  living  in  Prussia 
under  the  name  of  Pachelbl  Gehag.  One  of  them  was,  in  1850,  ranger  of 
one  of  the  royal  parks  [Hofjägeymeistey]  in  Berlin. 


366  FERDINAND     II. 

Scotchman  and  a  Calvinist ;  both  of  them  turned  Papists  only 
after  the  catastrophe.  These  three  islanders,  Butler,  Gordon, 
and  Leslie,  became  the  instruments  of  the  vindictive  plans 
which  had  been  hatched  by  the  Italians  and  Spaniards  in  the 
cabinet  of  Vienna.  This  energetic  triumvirate,  during  the 
night  of  the  24th,  pledged  themselves  at  the  citadel,  the 
quarters  of  the  commandant,  by  a  formal  oath  taken  on  the 
drawn  sword,  *'  to  make  away  with  Wallenstein."  It  was 
arranged  that  Gordon  should  invite  the  generals  for  the 
following  evening  to  a  carnival  banquet  in  the  citadel,  at 
which  the  deed  should  be  perpetrated.  Everything  made  it 
expedient  to  hasten,  Illo  having  already  triumphantly  an- 
nounced the  news  that,  on  the  day  after,  the  Swedes  would 
enter  the  town  of  Eger. 

On  Saturday,  the  25th  of  February,  1634,  Count  Terzka 
gave  to  the  officers  a  banquet  at  noon.  In  the  evening,  at 
six  o'clock,  he  drove  in  a  coach  with  Kinsky,  Illo,  and  Captain 
Neumann — the  writer  of  the  bond  of  Pilsen — to  Gordon's 
carnival  supper  in  the  citadel.  The  guests  sat  down  to  table, 
and  merrily  enjoyed  their  meat  and  their  wine.  The  banquet 
drawing  to  a  close,  the  upper  gate  of  the  town  was  opened,  as 
previously  arranged  by  Gordon  and  Leslie ;  and  a  hundred 
men  of  Butler's  Irish  dragoons,  and  as  many  German  soldiers, 
were  admitted  into  the  town  to  reinforce  the  guard- post  in  the 
citadel,  which  was  now  closed.  In  the  meanwhile  the  dessert 
had  been  put  on  the  table.  Now  a  letter  was  brought  to  the 
Commandant  Gordon.  It  was  a  forged  despatch,  pretended 
to  be  written  by  the  Electoral  Saxon  cabinet,  and  to  have 
been  intercepted.  It  was  stated  in  it  that  the  Elector  dis- 
approved of  Wallenstein's  intention  of  deserting  from  the 
Emperor ;  and  that  he  was  resolved  to  give  up  Wallenstein 
to  Ferdinand  if  he  got  him  in  his  power.  After  having  read 
the  despatch,  Gordon  handed  it  to  Illo,  who,  with  the  others, 
pooh-poohed  it ;  a  discussion  arose,  and,  as  if  to  be  able  to 
speak  more  freely,  the  servants  were  sent  out  of  the  hall  to  a 
distant  room,  where  their  supper  was  laid,  and  the  door  then 
locked  upon  them.  Now  the  murderers  were  alone  with  their 
victims. 


MURDER    OF    WALLENSTEIN's     FRIENDS  367 

As  soon  as  the  servants  were  got  rid  of,  there  stepped 
from  the  two  rooms  adjoining  the  dining-hall  the  Itahan 
Major  Geraldino  and  the  two  Irish  captains,  Devereux  and 
Macdonald,  with  thirty-six  dragoons,  most  of  them  Irish, 
with  not  one  German  among  them.  Geraldino  called  aloud  : 
"  Viva  la  casa  d' Austria!"  Devereux:  "  Wer  ist  gut  Kaiserlich?'' 
(Who  is  the  Emperor's  friend?)  To  which  Butler,  Gordon, 
and  Leslie  quickly  answered:  "  Vivat  Ferdinandus !  Vivat  Fer- 
dinandus!"  and,  seizing  each  his  sword,  and  a  candlestick  from 
the  table,  they  ranged  themselves  in  a  group  on  the  side  of 
the  wall.  The  Irish  now  stepped  up  to  the  table  and  over- 
turned it.  Kinsky  was  despatched  first,  then,  after  a  short 
resistance  Illo.  Terzka,  who  had  succeeded  in  recovering  his 
sword,  placed  himself  in  a  corner,  where  he  made  a  desperate 
defence.  His  buff  jerkin  warded  off  several  thrusts  and  cuts, 
so  that  the  dragoons  thought  him  "  frozen  "  (of  charmed  life) ; 
at  last  he  too  fell,  stabbed  by  daggers  in  the  face,  and  was 
then  despatched  with  the  butt-ends  of  the  muskets.  Captain 
Neumann  had  escaped  wounded  into  the  outer  part  of  the 
house,  and  was  stabbed  there.  The  bodies  of  the  victims 
were  given  up  to  the  dragoons ;  who  stripped  them  to  the 
shirt. 

It  was  about  nine  o'clock.  Gordon  caused  the  dining-hall 
to  be  locked,  and  remained  with  the  guard  in  the  citadel ; 
Leslie  went  to  the  principal  guard-post  in  the  market-place  ; 
and  Butler  surrounded  Wallenstein's  quarters.  It  was  a  dark, 
boisterous  night ;  the  wind  roared,  and  a  drizzling  rain 
pattered  against  the  windows.  Captain  Walter  Devereux,  of 
Butler's  regiment,  with  twelve  of  his  men,  now  set  out  on  his 
bloody  errand  to  the  duke.  The  sentinels,  supposing  he  was 
coming  to  make  a  report,  allowed  him  to  pass.  Wallenstein 
had  taken  a  bath,  and  was  going  to  lie  down.  In  the  ante- 
room Devereux  met  the  valet,  who  had  just  carried  in  to  his 
master  his  usual  evening  cup,  a  tankard  of  beer  on  a  golden 
salver.  The  man  requested  Devereux  not  to  make  a  noise, 
as  the  duke  had  retired  to  rest.  A  few  minutes  before  his 
astrologer,  Giovanni  Battista  Seni,  had  left  him,  who  is  said 
to  have  warned  him  by  the  stars  even  in  the  last  moment. 


368  FERDINAND     II. 

According  to  KhevenhüUer  they  could  not  agree  in  their 
calculations,  the  astrologer  having  found  in  his  that  the  hour 
of  danger  had  not  yet  arrived ;  and  the  duke,  on  the  other 
hand,  that  it  was  past.  The  latter  also  prophesied  that  Seni 
would  be  imprisoned,  which  really  came  true.  Wallenstein 
had  been  startled  by  the  noise  of  the  soldiers  being  drawn  up 
in  the  market-place ;  and  he  had  heard  the  shrieks  of  the 
Countesses  Kinsky  and  Terzka  in  the  outhouse,  who  had 
already  been  informed  of  their  husbands'  murder.  This 
caused  him  to  go  to  the  window  to  inquire  of  the  sentinel  what 
all  this  meant.  Devereux  asked  of  the  valet  the  key  of  the 
duke's  room ;  on  being  refused,  he  forced  the  door,  shouting, 
"  Rebels  !  rebels !  "  and  entered  with  his  fellow-assassins. 
Wallenstein  was  standing  in  his  shirt,  leaning  against  a  table. 
"  You  are  to  die,  rogue  ! "  Devereux  called  out  to  him.  As 
Wallenstein  turned  towards  the  window  to  call  for  help, 
Devereux  rushed  up  to  him  with  a  halberd ;  and  then, 
without  uttering  a  word,  with  outspread  arms,  the  great  man 
received  the  deadly  weapon  in  his  breast ;  "  and,"  writes 
Wassenberg,  the  author  of  the  German  Florus,  in  his  own 
quaint  and  graphic  style,  "  his  belly  gave  a  crack,  just  as 
if  a  musket  had  been  fired  off;  and,  whilst  thus  breathing 
out  his  soul,  he  spouted  from  his  mouth  a  great  smoke,  just 
as  if  he  were  all  burning  within.  Such  was  the  end  of  the 
German  Catiline !  " 

Immediately  after  the  murder,  the  papers  of  the  Duke 
were  locked  up,  Butler  taking  the  keys  with  him.  Wallen- 
stein's  master  of  the  household,  and  his  two  chamberlains, 
who  the  day  before  had  told  Leslie  that  Wallenstein  had 
proposed  to  them  to  give  them  their  honourable  discharge, 
lest  they  might  get  into  trouble,  received  a  guard  for  their 
security.  The  poor  astrologer,  Seni,  on  the  other  hand,  was 
imprisoned,  as  his  master  had  prophesied;  nor  did  the  soldiers 
release  him  until  he  had  disgorged  4,000  crowns,  given  him 
by  Wallenstein  the  day  before  his  death. 

The  body  of  the  Friedländer,  wrapped  up  in  a  scarlet 
carpet,  which  had  lain  under  his  bed,  was  conveyed  in 
Leslie's  coach  to  the  citadel.     Here  it  lay,  with  the  four  other 


wallenstein's  officers  imprisoned  or  executed     369 

corpses,  in  the  courtyard,  during  the  whole  of  Sunday.  On 
Monday  they  were  all  sent  to  lUo's  castle  at  Mies,  and  there 
buried  except  Neumann  ;  who,  on  account  of  his  violent, 
abusive  language  at  the  last  banquet,  viz.,  that  he  "hoped 
soon  to  wash  his  hands  in  the  blood  of  the  house  of  Austria," 
was  dug  in  under  the  gallows. 

Wallenstein's  coffin  having  been  made  too  short,  and  the 
limbs  having  already  stiffened,  they  were  obliged  to  break  his 
legs  to  get  him  into  it.  His  widow,  two  years  after,  caused 
his  remains  to  be  transferred  to  the  Carthusian  convent 
of  Walditz  near  Gitschin.  There  General  Baner,  in  1639, 
had  his  tomb  opened,  and  his  skull  and  his  right  arm  taken 
off  and  sent  as  a  trophy  to  Sweden.  In  1785  Count  Vincent 
of  Waldstein  received  permission  to  remove  the  coffin  of  his 
illustrious  ancestor  to  the  family  vault  of  the  Wallensteins,  at 
Münchengrätz,  a  market-town  in  the  canton  of  Bunzlau,  not 
far  from  Friedland. 

Terzka's  and  Kinsky's  widows  were  conveyed  with  the 
captive  Duke  Francis  Albert  of  Saxe-Lauenburg  from  Eger 
by  way  of  Pilsen  to  Wienerisch-Neustadt.  The  Countess 
Kinsky,  Terzka's  sister,  was  initiated  in  all  the  plans  of  the 
duke.  Maximiliana  Terzka,  of  the  house  of  Harrach,  had 
not  been  privy  to  anything,  and  was  a  loyal  imperialist.  The 
chequered  career  of  the  Duke  of  Lauenberg,  who  at  first  had 
been  a  field-marshal  in  the  Swedish,  and  then  in  the  Saxon, 
service,  ended  by  his  holding  the  same  rank  and  commission 
in  the  army  of  the  Emperor.  He  was  killed  in  1642,  near 
Schweidnitz. 

Everywhere  the  commandants  reputed  to  be  faithful  to 
Wallenstein  were  imprisoned  or  executed.  Thus  Piccol- 
omini  put  the  commandant  of  Pilsen  to  death  ;  and  Colloredo 
arrested,  at  Ohlau,  Hans  Ulric  Schafgotsch,  the  general 
commanding  in  Silesia,  and  had  him  conducted  to  Glatz,  as 
the  *'  Frankfort  Relations  "  ^  have  it,  "  in  ignominious  cap- 
tivity, without  sword,  pistols,  or  spurs." 

Wallenstein's  downfall  was  the  very  counterpart  of  that 

1  One  of  the  earliest  German  gazettes. 
VOL.  I  24 


370  FERDINAND     II. 

of  the  Guises  in  1588.  Just  as  they  lorded  it  over  Henry  III., 
who  was  thrown  into  the  shade  by  them,  so  Wallenstein  did 
with  regard  to  Ferdinand  II.  Apprehension  for  his  own 
safety  and  avarice,  but  by  no  means  a  conscientious  care  for 
upholding  the  public  law,  prompted  the  Emperor  to  destroy 
the  Friedländer. 

Silent  as  he  had  been  all  his  life,  so  also  was  he  in  taking 
leave  of  it.  With  the  profoundest  mystery,  he  locked  up 
in  his  innermost  heart  the  plans  and  designs  of  his  ardent 
ambition  ;  and  an  impenetrable  veil  remains  spread  over  his 
life  and  his  death.  It  probably  will  ever  be  doubtful  how  far 
Wallenstein  was  guilty  or  not.  The  controversy  between 
Count  Mailath  in  Vienna,  who  has  taken  the  part  of  the 
Emperor,  and  Professor  Förster  in  Berlin,  who  represents 
Wallenstein  as  completely  guiltless,  will  most  likely  never 
be  settled  in  a  satisfactory  manner.  There  is  one  fact  favour- 
able to  the  presumption  of  Wallenstein's  innocence — that  the 
court  of  Vienna  took  the  trouble,  by  a  special  manifesto 
published  in  1634,  under  the  title  of  "  Alberti  Friedlandi  pev- 
diicllionis  chaos"  &c.,  to  justify  the  murder  before  the  world  ; 
but  this  very  apology  is  completely  refuted  by  other  authentic 
documents.  Even  Count  Mailath  was  obliged  to  allow  that 
this  apology  was  nearly  in  every  point  resting  on  false  statements. 
Count  Mailath  and  Baron  von  Aretin  have,  on  the^other  hand, 
tried  to  prove  that  Ferdinand  II.  had  only  intended  to  depose 
Wallenstein  and  to  drive  him  from  Bohemia,  but  not  to  have 
him  killed.  This  is  completely  disproved  by  what  Eggenberg 
divulged  to  the  Bavarian  resident  minister  Richel ;  and  like- 
wise by  the  report  of  the  Elector  of  Mayence  from  Vienna, 
which  Förster  has  communicated  in  the  third  volume  of 
Wallenstein's  Letters.  It  is  of  the  23rd  of  February,  two 
days  before  his  death,  and  the  following  passage  occurs  in  it : 
"  Piccolomini,  Gallas,  and  Isolani  have  orders  to  deliver  up 
Wallenstein  either  living  or  dead,  and  the  result  is  hourly 
expected."  The  document  containing  the  written  order  to 
Gallas  for  apprehending  Wallenstein,  "  dead  or  alive,"  was 
undoubtedly  drawn  up  a  considerable  time  after  the  deed, 
and  dated  back,  to  give,  by  this  "  sententia  post  mortem,"  to 


CONTROVERSY  ABOUT  WALLENSTEIN  37I 

the  Italian  murderers  protection  from  the  revenge  of  the 
German  party  in  the  army;  as  immediately  on  the  news  of 
Wallenstein's  death  a  terrible  mutiny  broke  out  at  Prague. 
The  Germans  loudly  maintained  that  Wallenstein  was  no 
traitor,  but  that  he  had  fallen  by  the  intrigues  of  the  Italians. 
One  duel  after  the  other  was  fought ;  the  German  officers 
challenged  the  Italians,  stabbed  them  or  were  stabbed.  At 
last,  whole  battalions  of  Germans  and  Italians  fought  each 
other  for  the  quarrel  about  Wallenstein's  guilt  or  innocence  ; 
and  order  was  only  restored  in  the  army  by  means  of  the 
most  ruthless  severity. 

It  certainly  was  most  perfidious  and  undignified  in  the 
Emperor  still  to  write  to  Wallenstein  confidential  letters, 
after  having  already  issued  the  mandate  which,  insidiously 
driving  him  from  the  command,  sealed  his  ruin.  Wallen- 
stein, whom  the  Emperor  himself  had  voluntarily  invested 
with  unlimited  power,  was  after  all  the  man  who  had  saved 
his  monarchy  for  him.  "  There  is  this  to  he  said  of  the  house 
of  Austria,  they  have  no  gratitude^'  once  wrote  (27th  of  August, 
1718)  the  shrewd  Duchess  of  Orleans,  the  mother  of  the 
regent.  "  The  history  of  Austria  is  the  history  of  ingratitude," 
says  Hormayr ;  and  no  one  ever  knew  it  better,  for  he  was 
for  a  quarter  of  a  century  director  of  the  archives  of  Vienna, 
and  was  thoroughly  aware  of  all  the  secret  windings  of 
Habsburg  policy. 

No  evidence  whatever  of  the  treacherous  plans  imputed 
to  Wallenstein  was  found  in  his  papers  ;  but,  on  the  other 
hand,  it  is  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  Gallas,  on  the  28th  of 
February,  1634,  wrote  to  the  Emperor  from  Pilsen  that 
Wallenstein  was  said  to  have  burned,  on  the  day  before  the 
catastrophe,  600  letters.  The  Marchese  di  Grana  writes  more 
distinctly  from  Pilsen  (3rd  of  March,  1634):  "The  Lady 
Countess  Terzka  has  in  the  last  upset  burned  all  the  papers 
of  her  husband ;  as  also  others  of  Wallenstein  and  Kinsky 
have  been  destroyed  in  the  same  way."  Some  officers  of  the 
Austrian  Etat  Major  discovered,  in  1801,  by  mere  chance, 
the  papers  of  Wallenstein's  field-chancellery  in  a  garret  of 
the  town-hall  of  Budweis  in  Bohemia ;  where  they  had  very 

24 — 2 


372 


FERDINAND     II. 


likely  been  brought  in  the  year  1634  for  the  purpose  of  the 
trial  going  on  there  against  Wallenstein's  partisans,  and  had 
in  the  course  of  time  been  forgotten  and  stowed  away.  These 
Wallensteiniana,  published  in  the  Oestreichische  Militaivische 
Zeitschrift,  an  Austrian  military  journal,  throw  a  very  doubt- 
ful light  on  the  informers  and  murderers.  But  even  more 
than  this  was  brought  to  light.  The  Prussian  Aulic  Coun- 
cillor Förster  made  the  most  important  discovery  of  all.  The 
papers  and  documents  found  by  him,  in  September,  1828,  in 
the  archives  of  the  War  Office  at  Vienna  afford  the  most 
undeniable  evidence  of  Wallenstein  having  fallen  the  victim 
of  Italian-Spanish-Jesuit  intrigues,  and  of  the  imputations  of 
Maximilian  of  Bavaria ;  a  victim  of  ungrateful  informers, 
most  of  whom  the  Friedländer  had  raised  from  the  dust  to 
honour  and  wealth.  These  documents  were  carefully  kept 
secret  for  200  years ;  Captain  Aigner,  the  keeper  of  those 
archives,  who  had  long  known  them,  concealed  them  even 
from  his  junior  colleagues,  so  that  after  his  death  they  were 
completely  forgotten.  This  very  circumstance  paved  the  way 
for  their  being  discovered  by  a  stranger.  The  whole  state  of 
the  question  may  be  summed  up  in  a  few  words :  there  is  not 
one  tittle  of  positive  evidence  against  Wallenstein  in  all  that  has  been 
found,  either  at  Vienna,  or  in  the  royal  archives  of  Sweden ; 
or  in  the  papers  of  Arnim,  which  are  kept  at  Boitzenburg,  the 
family  seat  of  the  Arnims. 

The  estates  of  the  murdered  man  were  all  confiscated. 
Wallenstein's  landed  property  alone  was  estimated  at 
50,000,000  florins.  Most  of  it  fell  to  the  Emperor,  espe- 
cially the  duchies  of  Sagan  and  of  Glogau.  The  former 
was  sold,  in  1646,  by  Ferdinand  III. — it  is  true,  for  a  mere 
nominal  sum — to  the  Bohemian  Prince  Lobkowitz,  from 
whose  family  it  passed,  in  1785,  to  the  dukes  of  Biron- 
Courland.  Glogau  remained  the  property  of  the  Emperor 
until  the  Silesian  wars. 

The  generals  Gallas,  Piccolomini,  Colloredo,  Aldringer, 
Isolani,  Tiefenbach,  Morzin ;  and  the  imperial  councillors 
Maximilian  Trautmannsdorf,  Count  Henry  Schlick,  and 
Marchese  Caretto  di  Grana ;  as  also  the  three  managers  of 


WALLENSTEIN  S     ESTATES    APPORTIONED  373 

the  murder  of  Wallenstein  and  his  friends,  received  a  rich 
share  of  the  booty. 

Count  Matthias  Gallas  had  Wallenstein's  lordships  of 
Friedland  and  Reichenberg  in  Bohemia,  of  the  value  of 
300,000  florins,  besides  Kinsky's  house  and  garden  at  Prague, 
and  several  mines.  The  family  of  Gallas  became  extinct  in 
1757,  and  the  estates  are  now  in  the  possession  of  the 
Carinthian  family  Clam-Gallas. 

Ottavio  Piccolomini,  Count  of  Arragon,  next  to  Gallas 
the  principal  mover  of  Wallenstein's  ruin,  and  the  most 
perfidious  of  his  betrayers,  was  one  of  the  worst  men  of  a 
most  worthless  set ;  and  he  had  earned  an  infamous  notoriety 
before.  To  him  the  richest  prizes  were  awarded.  The 
Emperor  Ferdinand  II.  gave  to  this  treacherous  sneak,  who 
had  for  his  crest  a  tortoise,  with  the  expressive  motto 
"  Gradatim,"  Terzka's  lordship  of  Nachod  in  Bohemia,  an 
estate  of  the  value  of  not  less  than  600,000  florins.  In  1654 
he  was  raised  by  Ferdinand  III.  to  the  dignity  of  a  prince 
of  the  Empire.  Besides  this,  the  crown  of  Spain  restored  to 
him  the  duchy  of  Amalfi  in  Naples,  which  his  ancestors  had 
possessed.  Prince  Piccolomini,  Duke  of  Amalfi,  died  in 
Vienna,  in  1656,  at  the  age  of  fifty-seven,  without  any  direct 
heir.  The  family  honours  passed  to  his  brother  ^neas,  in 
whose  line  they  descended.  The  German  branch  became 
extinct  in  the  year  1757;  after  which  the  Italian  branch  of 
the  Piccolominis  sold  the  Bohemian  estates.  Nachod  was, 
in  1792,  acquired  by  the  dukes  of  Biron-Courland,  and  from 
them  it  passed,  in  1843,  likewise  by  purchase,  into  the  family 
of  Schaumburg-Lippe. 

Rudolph,  Count  of  Colloredo,  received  the  Friedland  lord- 
ship of  Opotschno  in  Bohemia.  The  Colloredos  are  descended 
from  the  Swabian  house  of  the  counts  of  Waldsee.  A  branch 
of  them  settled,  in  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century,  in 
Friuli,  and  there  built  the  castle  of  Colloredo — in  collo  rigido — 
on  the  bleak  hill  near  Udine.  They  came  first  to  the  imperial 
court  under  Rodolph  II.  Opotschno  is  to  this  day  in  the 
possession  of  the  princely  line  of  the  house. 

Count  John  Aldringer  received  Kinsky's  beautiful  lordship 


374  FERDINAND     II. 

of  Töplitz,  at  that  time  of  the  value  of  195,000  florins.  He 
was  a  native  of  Luxemburg ;  one  of  those  bold  upstarts  of 
whom  so  many  rose  during  the  stormy  times  of  the  Thirty 
Years'  War.  His  first  start  in  Hfe  was  as  servant  to  some  gentle- 
man, with  whom  he  went  to  Paris.  Afterwards  he  was  clerk 
to  Colonel  Madruzzi  in  Milan.  From  thence  he  entered  the 
service  of  Cardinal  Louis  Madruzzi,  bishop  of  Trent,  in  the 
same  capacity ;  but,  being  ousted  by  some  enemies,  he  left 
Trent  for  Innsbruck,  with  the  resolution  of  taking  anything 
that  might  happen  to  turn  up.  Meeting  on  the  bridge  of 
Innsbruck  a  soldier  who  was  returning  to  Italy,  he  went  with 
him  and  enlisted.  His  ready  pen  and  his  personal  courage 
soon  made  him  rise  from  the  ranks  to  be  a  lieutenant.  In 
1622  Aldringer  was  already  a  colonel;  and  three  years  after 
he  received  from  his  patron,  the  Duke  of  Friedland,  the  im- 
portant and  most  lucrative  post  of  commissary-general  of  the 
army.  In  1627  he  was  made  a  baron,  and  in  1632  a  count. 
He  became  the  brother-in-law  of  Gallas.  His  ruling  passion, 
however,  was  avarice  rather  than  ambition.  He  had  contrived 
so  well  during  the  wars  to  enrich  himself  by  plunder  and 
forced  contributions,  that  at  last  he  had  800,000  crowns  lying 
in  the  banks  of  Venice  and  Genoa.  Like  all  low-minded 
upstarts,  he  was  mercilessly  harsh  to  those  who  were  under 
him.  He  was  killed  in  1634,  before  the  battle  of  Nördlingen, 
at  the  bridge  of  Landshut ;  and  it  was  doubtful  whether  the 
ball  which  struck  him  was  shot  by  the  Swedes  or  by  his  own 
people.  His  property  devolved  on  the  family  of  the  second 
husband  of  his  sister,  Jerome  von  Clary,  whose  descendants 
received,  in  1666,  the  patent  as  Counts  Clary- Aldringer ;  and, 
in  1767,  the  princely  coronet.  Töplitz  is  still  in  the  possession 
of  that  family.  Wallenstein's  principal  residence,  Gitschin, 
was  given  to  Count  Maximilian  Trautmannsdorf,  in  whose 
family  it  still  is ;  other  rich  estates  of  the  duke  fell  to  Count 
Henry  Schlick  and  to  Count  Sigismund  Dietrichstein. 

The  murderers  of  Wallenstein  were  not  less  richly  re- 
warded. 

Colonel  Butler,  the  principal  manager  of  the  tragedy  of 
that  night,  went  to  Vienna ;  where  the  Emperor  received  him 


BUTLER,     LESLIE     AND     GORDON     REWARDED  375 

at  the  Hofburg,  shook  hands  with  him,  and  bestowed  a  golden 
chain  of  honour  on  him.  He  was  raised  to  the  dignity  of  a 
count  of  the  Empire,  was  made  an  imperial  chamberlain, 
and  received  Wallenstein's  lordship  of  Hirschberg,  besides 
several  estates  of  Count  Terzka's  in  Bohemia ;  not  to  reckon 
the  very  large  plunder  which  he  had  already  appropriated  at 
Eger.  Butler  died  childless,  leaving  his  property  to  his  grand- 
nephew,  from  whom  the  present  Counts  Butler  in  Bavaria  are 
descended.  They  sold  Hirschberg,  which  now  again  belongs 
to  the  Wallensteins ;  and,  having  intermarried  with  the  now 
extinct  family  of  the  Counts  Haynhausen,  they  style  them- 
selves Counts  Butler-Haynhausen. 

The  most  successful  of  the  British  adversaries  of  Wallen- 
stein was  Walter  Leslie,  who  held  at  the  time  of  the  catas- 
trophe the  rank  of  major  only.  Butler  sent  him,  on  the  very 
night  of  the  murder,  with  a  written  report  to  Gallas,  who,  in 
his  turn,  despatched  him  to  Vienna.  Thus  Leslie  was  the  first 
to  bring  the  Emperor  the  news  of  the  bloody  deed ;  at  which 
Ferdinand,  as  is  well  known,  shed  tears,  just  as  at  the  death 
of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  and  ordered  3,000  masses  to  be  said 
for  the  soul  of  his  murdered  general.  Leslie  was  raised  to  the 
dignity  of  count  of  the  Empire,  and  made  an  imperial  cham- 
berlain, captain  of  the  imperial  body-guard  of  halberdiers,  and 
chief  of  a  regiment.  Besides  this,  he  received  the  Friedland 
town  of  Neustadt  on  the  Mettau,  in  Bohemia,  of  the  value  of 
200,000  florins.  He  married  the  daughter  of  Prince  Maxi- 
milian Dietrichstein,  and  thereby  became  brother-in-law  to 
the  celebrated  Montecuculi.  In  1650  he  was  appointed  field- 
marshal-general,  and  received  the  government  of  Croatia,  the 
richest  one  in  the  whole  monarchy.  In  1655  he  was  sworn  a 
member  of  the  privy  council,  and  in  1665  he  received  the 
highest  distinction  of  the  Empire,  the  order  of  the  Golden 
Fleece.  He  afterwards  kept  one  of  the  most  splendid  houses 
in  Vienna,  was  sent  on  an  embassy  to  Constantinople,  and 
died  in  1672.  The  house  of  the  Counts  Leslie  became 
extinct  in  1802,  when  most  of  its  estates  devolved  on  the 
Princes  Dietrichstein. 

The  third  of  the  conspirators,  Colonel  Gordon,  received 


376  FERDINAND    II. 

Wallenstein's  lordship  of  Smidar — which  now  belongs  to  the 
Colloredos — besides  some  estates  of  Kinsky's  in  Bohemia. 
Captain  Devereux,  who  had  pierced  Wallenstein's  breast  with 
a  halberd,  received  a  golden  chain  of  honour,  and  likewise 
several  confiscated  estates  in  Bohemia.  Major  Geraldino  was 
made  a  count.  Butler,  whilst  still  at  Eger,  had  caused  from 
the  plunder  500  rix-dollars  to  be  paid  to  each  of  the  twelve 
soldiers  who  had  struck  the  great  blow  with  Devereux,  and  to 
all  the  other  soldiers  two  ducats  each. 

On  the  other  hand,  all  the  partisans  of  Wallenstein  were 
outlawed.  Twenty-four  colonels  and  captains — most  of  them 
Bohemians  and  Germans,  like  Mohrwald,  Uhlefeld,  Wild- 
berger,  and  Hammerle — died  by  the  hand  of  the  hangman 
at  Pilsen.  General  Hans  Ulric  Schafgotsch,  of  Kynast  in 
Silesia,  was  beheaded  at  Ratisbon  on  the  23rd  of  July,  1635. 
To  his  last  moment  he  protested  his  innocence;  the  torture 
forced  from  him  some  vague,  unconnected  statements ;  but  it 
is. expressly  stated  in  the  report  to  the  Emperor  that  nothing 
had  been  extorted  from  him  concerning  the  main  point  of  the 
treasonable  plot,  and  what  pertained  thereunto.  His  children 
were  given  to  the  Jesuits  at  Olmütz,  to  be  brought  up  as 
Papists.  The  Emperor  restored  to  them  the  confiscated 
estates  of  their  father,  with  the  exception  of  one  lordship, 
Trachenberg,  with  which  the  faithful  services  of  General 
Melchior,  Count  of  Hatzfeld,  were  rewarded. 

The  widow  of  Wallenstein  received  the  news  of  her 
husband's  death  at  Prugg  on  the  Leitha,  in  Lower  Austria. 
"  The  lady,"  says  Khevenhüller,  "  knew  no  end  to  her  grief, 
and  only  begged  for  the  body  of  her  husband."  The  Bohemian 
lordship  of  Neuschloss  was  allowed  her  for  her  residence  and 
jointure.  Wallenstein  left  an  only  daughter,  Maria  Elizabeth. 
She  married  Count  Rudolph  Kaunitz,  an  ancestor  of  the 
celebrated  Prince  and  Arch-chancellor  Kaunitz.  The  only 
remainder  of  the  colossal  property  of  Wallenstein,  which  his 
heiress  had  for  her  dowry,  consisted  in  the  two  lordships  of 
Neuschloss  and  Lippa,  which  continued  in  the  possession  of 
the  Kaunitz  family  until  lately,  when  that  house  became 
extinct. 


BATTLE    OF     NORDLINGEN  377 

In  his  last  will  Wallenstein  appointed  his  cousin,  the 
imperial  master  of  the  horse,  Count  Maximilian  of  Waldstein, 
to  succeed  him  in  the  entailed  property.  The  descendants  of 
that  nobleman  have  still  (1852)  a  lawsuit  pending  since  1841 
for  decision  by  the  supreme  tribunal  at  Prague,  concerning  the 
restoration  of  the  entailed  property  withheld  from  them. 
Count  Christian  Waldstein-Wartenberg  is  the  plaintiff  in 
the  cause.  The  principal  evidence  in  favour  of  Wallenstein's 
heirs  is  a  passage  in  the  charter  given  by  Ferdinand  II.,  dated 
Vienna,  nth  of  May,  1627,  in  conferring  on  their  ancestor  the 
duchy  of  Friedland  :  "  That  in  case  some  one  or  other  of  the 
Duke  of  Friedland's  successors  should  be  convicted  of  the 
crime  of  lese-majesty,  he  or  they  should  not,  as  otherwise 
would  be  directed  by  law,  be  punished  with  confiscation  of 
the  duchy  of  Friedland  or  other  estates,  but  should  suffer 
capital  punishment,  and  the  duchy  and  the  estates  devolve  on 
the  next  succeeding  duke  or  prince  of  Friedland." 

The  death  of  Wallenstein  was,  under  the  circumstances,  a 
most  fortunate  event  for  the  house  of  Austria.  Yet  the  year 
1634  was  marked  by  two  other  equally  lucky  occurrences — 
the  taking  of  the  important  town  of  Ratisbon  on  the  26th  of 
July,  and  the  great  victory  gained  by  the  imperial  army  on 
the  27th  of  August,  near  Nördlingen  in  Swabia.  It  was 
won  by  the  King  of  Hungary,  afterwards  the  Emperor 
Ferdinand  III. — at  that  time  in  his  twenty-seventh  year — 
and  by  Lieutenant-general  Gallas,  over  the  Swedish  Field- 
marshal  Horn  and  Duke  Bernard  of  Weimar.  Horn's  plan 
had  been  to  wait  for  reinforcements  under  the  Rhinegrave ; 
but  the  reckless  ardour  of  Duke  Bernard  carried  him  away. 
The  King  of  Hungary,  on  the  other  hand,  had  been  joined 
by  the  Cardinal  Infant  of  Spain,  Ferdinand,  a  brother  of 
Philip  IV.,  with  10,000  men  of  the  old  excellent  Spanish 
infantry  which  the  cardinal  brought  up  from  Milan.  Thus 
the  imperialists  were  35,000  men  strong,  the  Swedes  only 
23,000,  among  them  6,000  Würtemberg  peasants  gathered  in 
a  hurry.  The  object  of  the  battle  had  been  to  save  Würtem- 
berg. and  that  duchy  was  lost  with  the  battle.  The  feelings 
with  which  this  event  was  looked  upon  by  the  Protestant 


378  FERDINAND     II. 

princes  may  be  gathered  from  a  letter  of  the  clever  Electress 
of  Saxony,  a  Brandenburg  princess,  to  her  by  no  means 
clever  husband,  John  George  L,  when  the  Duchess-Dowager 
of  Würtemberg  had  applied  to  her  for  alms.  The  letter  is  dated 
from  Dresden,  the  22nd  of  September,  1634.  "  I*  '^^"  ^^^ 
writes,  "  a  most  melancholy  and  pitiful  thing  that  it  should 
have  come  to  pass  that  the  high  potentates  and  princes  of  the 
Empire  with  their  infant  children  are  obliged  to  beg  alms 
from  their  trusty  friends.  The  Lord  have  mercy  on  us,  but 
the  Emperor  has  much  to  answer  for  before  God,  and  I  do  not 
believe  that  the  Almighty  can  receive  him  into  favour  again ;  he  has 
worked  too  much  evil  in  his  life." 

One  of  the  consequences  of  the  victory  of  Nördlingen  was 
that  the  Elector  of  Saxony  concluded  with  the  Emperor  the 
peace  of  Prague  in  1635,  ^^  which  John  George,  for  the 
cession  of  the  Lusatias,  gave  up  the  cause  of  the  Protestants, 
and  allied  himself  with  the  Emperor  against  the  Swedes. 
Puffendorf  states  that  Hoe  von  Hoenegg,  the  electoral  court 
chaplain,  had  been  accused  of  having  taken  10,000  crowns  for 
inducing  his  master  to  sign  that  peace.  Brandenburg  and  the 
other  Protestant  princes  of  Northern  Germany,  and  in  par- 
ticular the  Saxon  dukes  of  the  Ernestine  line,  and  even  Duke 
George  of  Lüneburg,  joined  in  it;  Hesse-Cassel,  Würtemberg, 
and  Baden-Durlach,  on  the  other  hand,  remained  true  to 
Sweden.  Hesse-Cassel  succeeded  in  keeping  out  the  im- 
perialist army,  by  which  Würtemberg  and  Baden,  as  also 
Alsace  and  the  Palatinate,  were  occupied. 

70. — Dtike  Bernard  of  Weimar. 

The  third  act  of  the  tragedy  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War  now 
began.  In  1635  France  declared  war  against  Austria,  and 
engaged  as  commander-in-chief  the  former  generalissimo  of 
the  League  of  Heilbronn,  Duke  Bernard  of  Weimar,  the 
great  pupil  of  the  King  of  Sweden. 

Duke  Bernard  was  the  youngest  of  eleven  sons  whom  the 
pious  Princess  Dorothy  Maria  of  Köthen  had,  in  as  many 
successive  years,  borne  to  her  husband  Duke  John  of  Weimar. 


DUKE  BERNARD  S  EARLY  CAREER  37g 

The  father  died  in  1605,  when  Bernard  was  scarcely  a  year 
old,  and  the  mother  undertook  the  education  of  the  infant 
prince.  Frederic  Hortleder,  the  author  of  the  large  work  on 
the  Smalcalde  war,  became  his  instructor  in  history.  The 
prince  went  to  the  university  of  Jena ;  but  before  he  had 
completed  his  eighteenth  year  he  went  to  draw  his  sword  for 
the  cause  of  the  Protestants.  He  at  first  served  under  his 
elder  brother  William,  in  South  Germany,  where  he  was 
present  at  the  battle  of  Wimpfen ;  then  under  the  Prince  of 
Orange,  in  the  Netherlands  ;  then,  from  1625  to  1628,  as 
colonel  under  the  King  of  Denmark,  in  Lower  Saxony.  Dis- 
gusted with  the  inglorious  war  under  the  Danish  standard,  he 
returned  to  the  hereditary  country  of  his  family.  But  in  1631 
he  was  one  of  the  first  German  princes  who  joined  Gustavus 
Adolphus,  with  whom  he  first  met  in  his  camp  at  Werben  on 
the  Elbe.  The  King  appointed  him  colonel  of  his  mounted 
regiment  of  guards.  During  the  campaign,  which  resulted  in 
the  battle  of  Breitenfeld,  he  was  charged  with  the  protection 
of  Hesse.  He  afterwards  marched  with  the  King  to  the 
Maine  and  the  Rhine,  to  Swabia  and  Bavaria,  commanding 
the  vanguard  of  the  Swedish  army;  his  advance  being  only 
checked  by  the  strongly  fortified  Ehrenberger  Clause,  the  key 
of  the  Tyrol.  He  was  present  at  the  attack  of  the  Alte  Veste 
near  Nuremberg ;  then  went  with  the  King  to  Saxony;  and  at 
Lützen  decided  the  battle  after  Gustavus  had  fallen.  The 
death  of  the  King  giving  full  scope  to  his  ambition,  he  exerted 
himself  to  his  utmost  to  get  the  lead  in  the  affairs  of  Germany, 
causing  thereby  many  a  sleepless  night  to  Oxenstierna. 
Having  got  Oxenstierna  to  give  him  the  duchy  of  Franconia, 
he  set  out  for  the  Bavarian  campaign ;  conquered,  in  1633, 
the  free  imperial  town  of  Ratisbon  ;  and  was  just  negotiating 
with  Wallenstein  concerning  a  junction  between  them,  when 
the  latter  was  murdered  at  Eger  in  1634.  ^^^  ^^  ^^^  same 
year  Ratisbon  was  lost  again,  and  Bernard  with  Horn  was 
defeated  at  Nördlingen  ;  the  first  and  last  time  in  his  warlike 
career  that  he  was  beaten  in  a  pitched  battle.  South-western 
Germany  thus  being  lost  to  him,  Bernard  took  up  a  position 
on  the  Middle  Rhine  near  Frankfort  and  Mayence,  whilst  the 


380  FERDINAND     II. 

Swedish  field-marshal  Baner,  who  during  the  battle  of  Nörd- 
lingen  had  been  stationed  in  Bohemia,  covered  North-western 
Germany.  But  in  1635  Duke  Bernard  was  obliged  to  cross 
the  Rhine,  and  to  retire  to  the  Meuse  and  the  Moselle.  On 
the  7th  of  December,  1635,  Mayence,  the  last  stronghold  on 
the  Rhine,  capitulated.  In  the  beginning  of  March,  1636, 
Duke  Bernard  made  his  appearance  in  Paris,  and  had,  on  the 
loth  of  that  month,  an  interview  with  Louis  XIII.  at  St. 
Germain  ;  and  on  the  same  day  with  Cardinal  Richelieu  at 
Rueil.  After  having  stayed  with  the  French  for  two  months 
and  a  half,  he  returned  to  the  headquarters  of  his  troops  at 
Vezelize  in  Lorraine.  He  now  called  himself  "  Generalissimo 
of  the  Crowns  of  Sweden  and  France,  and  of  the  Evangelical 
League."  His  first  visit  to  Paris,  in  the  spring  of  1636,  was 
followed  by  another  in  the  beginning  of  1637,  when  he  stayed 
from  the  beginning  of  January  to  the  end  of  May. 

In  the  treaty  concluded  by  Richelieu  at  St.  Germain  with 
Bernard's  very  clever  agent  at  the  French  court,  Tobias  von 
Ponikow,  as  far  back  as  on  the  27th  of  October,  1635, 
4,000,000  livres  as  long  as  the  war  lasted  for  the  maintenance 
of  12,000  infantry,  6,000  cavalry,  and  an  artillery,  with  600 
horse,  and  besides,  by  a  subsequent  order  of  the  King  of  the 
6th  of  November,  the  revenue  of  the  landgraviate  of  Alsace 
had  been  promised  to  the  duke.  Alsace  having  already  been 
partly  wrested  from  the  house  of  Habsburg,  it  was  Richelieu's 
plan  from  thence  to  overrun  the  duchy  of  Lorraine ;  and, 
moreover,  to  conquer  the  Upper  Burgundian  provinces  from 
the  Spanish  crown.  These  countries  being  once  acquired, 
France  would  have  had  her  ascendency  secured  over  Ger- 
many, as  they  formed  an  uninterrupted  chain  from  the 
Netherlands  along  the  north-eastern  frontier  of  France  as  far 
as  Italy.  Yet  this  plan  of  Richelieu's  was  wholly  at  variance 
with  the  views  of  Duke  Bernard;  whose  aim,  on  the  contrary, 
it  was  to  establish  Alsace  as  a  principality  for  himself  under 
the  sovereignty  of  the  German  Empire,  thus  forming  for  the 
latter  a  bulwark  on  the  Upper  Rhine  against  France.  This 
object  he  very  nearly  attained  by  his  victory  near  Rheinfelden, 
on  the  2ist  of  February,  1638,  where  a  great  part  of  the  im- 


DUKE  BERNARD  AT  BREISACH  381 

perial  generals  were  made  prisoners.  He  was  brought  even 
nearer  the  accompHshment  of  his  purpose  by  the  taking  of 
the  important  fortress  of  Breisach  (Brisac),  which  capitulated 
on  the  7th  of  December,  1638,  after  Bernard  had  repulsed 
three  attempts  for  its  relief.  Breisach  being  the  key  of  the 
Upper  Rhine,  Bernard  intended  to  make  it  the  centre  of  his 
dominion.  He  hoped  that,  in  league  with  England  and  the 
German  Protestants,  especially  with  Hesse-Cassel,  he  should 
be  able  to  counteract  the  obnoxious  tendencies  of  Richelieu's 
encroaching  policy,  and  also  to  keep  the  Swedes  in  check. 
Austria  lost  with  Breisach  its  advanced  western  provinces. 
The  princes  of  Würtemberg  and  Baden-Durlach  were  enabled 
to  return  from  their  exile  at  Strassburg  to  their  own  countries. 
On  the  one  hand,  Breisach  menaced  the  Spaniards  in  their 
Burgundian  provinces,  the  Papist  Duke  of  Lorraine  in 
his  own  country,  and  the  Catholic  Swiss  cantons ;  on  the 
other,  Duke  Maximilian  of  Bavaria ;  and,  moreover,  it 
afforded  a  secure  base  for  military  operations  to  be  carried 
on  in  Swabia,  Franconia,  and  Bavaria. 

Immediately  after  the  taking  of  Breisach,  still  in  De- 
cember, 1638,  Duke  Bernard  set  out  for  a  winter  campaign 
to  conquer  the  South  Burgundian  provinces.  These  he  in- 
tended to  cede  to  France,  with  the  exception  of  the  most 
important  fortified  places ;  all  of  which,  like  Alsace,  he 
claimed  for  himself.  By  the  middle  of  February,  1639,  the 
best  part  of  the  country  was  in  his  power.  About  this  time 
Duke  Bernard  conceived  the  plan  of  removing  his  head- 
quarters from  Pontarlier  to  the  pleasant  town  of  Joux.  Pre- 
vious to  his  departure  a  colonel  gave  in  his  honour  a  banquet. 
The  duke  went  thither  in  perfect  health,  and  was  brought 
home  ill.  He  was  immediately  taken  to  Joux,  where  he 
recovered  in  a  few  weeks.  About  the  end  of  March,  just 
as  he  was  starting  from  Pontarlier  to  Alsace,  a  French  envoy. 
De  Lisle,  came  to  him  with  despatches  from  Richelieu, 
whose  paramount  care  was  that  Bernard  should  give  up 
Breisach  to  the  French.  Bernard,  however,  gave  a  positive 
refusal,  and  the  cardinal  had  to  content  himself  with  the  duke's 
written  promise  that  he  would  guard  Breisach,  as  well  as  all 


382  FERDINAND     II. 

the  other  conquered  places,  under  the  sovereignty  of  the 
King  of  France.  After  this  compromise  was  concluded, 
Bernard,  with  the  princes  of  Würtemberg  and  Baden- 
Durlach,  and  the  Hessian  and  Palatine  envoys,  went  to 
Alsace,  where  he  kept  his  Easter  at  Breisach.  He  there 
behaved  completely  as  the  master  of  the  country,  issuing 
orders  like  a  sovereign,  as  is  proved  by  the  still-existing 
documents. 

The  distressed  courts  of  Vienna  and  Madrid,  foreseeing 
the  danger  which  threatened  them  from  Bernard,  immediately 
began  to  negotiate  with  him.  As  the  price  of  reconciliation, 
they  held  out  to  him  the  promise  of  the  hand  of  the  daughter 
of  Archduke  Leopold  of  Tyrol;  besides  which,  a  German 
country  was  to  be  settled  on  him.  But  Duke  Bernard  did 
not  enter  upon  it,  nor  would  he  agree  to  a  plan  which  the 
celebrated  Landgravine-regent  Amelia  of  Hesse-Cassel  pro- 
posed to  him  in  the  beginning  of  1639,  through  the  Nether- 
lander Wicquefort,  their  joint  agent  at  Amsterdam — to  form 
with  her  the  often  mooted  but  never  realised  "  third  German 
party."  Bernard  wrote  on  this  subject  from  Rheinfelden  to 
Wicquefort  (6th  of  June,  1639),  "  That  the  project  was 
hatched  by  the  Papists  themselves,  and  was  saddled  with 
something  even  worse ;  for  the  foreign  powers  France  and 
Sweden  would  be  driven  to  desperate  measures,  and  be  forced 
to  conclude  a  peace  on  their  own  account,  and  divide  Germany 
between  friend  and  foe.  The  experience  of  all  treaties  since  the 
peace  of  Passau  had  shown  that  no  peace  could  he  expected  from 
Austria  until  one  had  forced  it  from  hcr.'^ 

In  the  beginning  of  June  Bernard  had  returned  from 
Alsace  to  Upper  Burgundy.  At  Pontarlier  he  was  met 
by  another  French  envoy,  the  Comte  de  Guebriant,  whose 
mission  again  concerned  the  surrender  of  Breisach.  Bernard 
repeated  his  former  refusal,  but  remarked  that  he  would 
never  separate  himself  from  France ;  and,  though  they  might 
drive  him  out  by  one  door,  he  would  return  by  the  other. 
Guebriant  made  two  more  attempts  to  induce  the  duke  to  give 
a  more  favourable  answer.  As  he  earnestly  warned  the  duke 
of  the  possible  consequences  of  his  refusal,  Bernard  replied, 


DUKE   Bernard's   death  383 

"  Never  fear,  M.  le  Comte,  I  know  the  court.  It  is  not  the 
first  time  that  unfair  proposals  have  been  made  to  me. 
Whenever  I  refused  them  the  ministers  complimented  me, 
and  excused  themselves  on  the  plea  of  duty;  the  cardinal 
himself  once  told  me  that  this  was  the  French  fashion." 
Thus  persisting  in  his  first  resolution,  he  handed,  on  the 
23rd  of  June,  to  the  count  a  written  declaration,  to  be  ex- 
pedited to  the  French  court. 

This  declaration  caused  the  greatest  sensation  at  St. 
Germain,  and,  as  Richelieu  saw  through  Bernard's  plan  of 
making  himself  independent,  and  forming  a  German  border- 
country  against  France,  the  French  cabinet  determined  by 
every  means  to  oust  Bernard  from  his  conquests. 

On  the  very  same  day  that  Bernard  had  delivered  his 
written  answer  for  the  French  court,  he  set  out  from 
Pontarlier  to  cross  the  Rhine  for  a  new  campaign.  On 
the  3rd  of  July  he  arrived  at  the  fortified  town  of  Hüningen, 
where,  on  the  4th,  he  was  suddenly  seized  with  indisposition. 
He  therefore  went  in  a  boat  with  the  Swedish  resident  Mockel 
to  Neuenburg,  where  his  troops  were  just  about  to  cross  the 
Rhine.  The  illness  daily  increased.  The  doctors  treated  him 
for  colic,  whereas  his  disease  was  a  malignant  raging  fever ; 
and  thus,  on  the  i8th  of  July,  163g,  at  seven  in  the  morning, 
this  hero  in  the  prime  of  his  life  breathed  his  last.  "  It  was  the 
most  unfortunate  day,"  says  Hugo  Grotius ;  "  Germany  lost 
her  finest  ornament  and  her  last  hope,  almost  her  only  prince 
who  was  worthy  of  the  name."  Bernard  died  in  the  thirty- 
fifth  year  of  his  age,  unmarried.  The  King  of  Sweden  had 
intended  to  give  him  his  niece.  His  only  love  seems  to 
have  been  the  Princess  of  Rohan,  the  daughter  of  the  Pro- 
testant Henry  of  Rohan,  whose  acquaintance  he  had  made 
during  his  stay  in  Paris  in  1636,  and  who  was  of  such  extra- 
ordinary beauty  that  Bernard  is  said  to  have  trembled  on 
first  seeing  her.  The  King  of  France,  however,  opposed  such 
an  alliance,  for  fear  the  Huguenots  might  thereby  acquire 
too  powerful  a  support.  Another  plan,  mentioned  by  Baner, 
of  a  union  with  the  Landgravine  Amelia  of  Hesse,  was  meant 
— as  Rommel  very  correctly  observes — "  for  neither  more  nor 


384  FERDINAND     II. 

less  than  a  military  alliance,  in  which  Amelia,  the  mother  of 
fourteen  children,  and  the  senior  of  Bernard  by  two  years, 
would  have  brought  him  as  dowry  20,000  men." 

France,  as  well  as  Spain,  was  accused  of  having  given 
poison  to  Bernard  of  Weimar  in  a  plate  of  fish.  Certain  it 
is  that  letters  from  Switzerland,  from  Venice,  and  also  from 
Milan  warned  the  duke  to  beware  of  Spanish  poison.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  Swedish  councillor,  Müller  of  Hamburg, 
wrote,  as  far  back  as  February,  1639,  that  the  "  duke's  life 
was  in  great  danger  from  the  envy  of  the  great  French  lords." 
Bernard's  physician,  Blandini,  a  Genevese,  states,  in  his  re- 
port of  the  opening  of  the  body,  that  he  had  died  of  a 
malignant  fever,  whereas  he  was  known  to  have  treated 
the  duke  for  colic.  And  this  physician  is  said  actually  to 
have  absconded  some  days  after  Bernard's  death.  The 
whole  body  of  the  duke  was  covered  with  blotches ;  also 
he  himself  on  his  sick  bed  gave  it  as  his  opinion  that  he 
was  poisoned.  Puffendorf  says  without  disguise,  "Because 
he  could  not  be  induced  to  dance  to  the  tune  of  the  French, 
they  at  last  administered  to  him  some  of  their  little  messes, 
upon  which  he  died." 

The  duke  was  buried  at  Breisach,  and  it  was  only  in  1655, 
seven  years  after  the  peace,  that  his  body  was  removed  to  the 
town-church  of  Weimar.  Bernard  was  a  great  man,  on  whom 
much  rested,  without  however  coming  up  to  the  standard  of 
a  first-rate  statesman  and  general.  Goethe,  who  had  been 
commissioned  to  write  a  biography  of  the  hero,  very  wisely 
got  out  of  it,  as  he  found  a  great  many  hitches  in  the  way. 
Feuquieres  very  likely  had  given  a  very  correct  opinion  of 
the  duke  when  he  wrote,  "  C'esi  tin  Prince  d'lm  grand  cceiir  et 
d'un  esprit  mediocre,  fort  vaillant,  et  d'une  ambition  sans  homes." 

After  the  death  of  the  duke,  the  French  at  once  took  his 
troops  into  their  pay,  and  now  occupied  Breisach  on  the 
igth  of  October,  1639.  Bernard  in  his  last  will,  which, 
one  hour  before  his  death,  he  dictated  to  his  chancellor 
Rehlinger  (of  an  Augsburg  patrician  family),  had  expressed 
a  wish  that  "  one  of  his  brothers  would  take  the  conquered 
countries  "  ;  remarking  at  the  same  time,  "  The  same  can  and 


THE     emperor's     DEATH  385 

should  as  much  as  possible  insinuate  himself  with  his  Imperial 
Majesty  and  the  crown  of  Sweden,  in  order  that  he  may  be 
so  much  the  rather  maintained  in  these  countries.  But  if 
none  of  the  princes,  our  brothers,  should  feel  inclined  to 
accept  the  countries,  we  consider  it  but  fair  that  his  Majesty 
of  France  should  by  all  means  have  the  next  claim  ;  so, 
however,  that  both  his  Majesty's  garrisons  and  ours  shall  be 
kept  in  them,  and  whenever  a  general  peace  be  concluded, 
the  countries  shall  be  restored  to  the  EmpireJ"  In  the  introduction 
already  he  had  laid  it  down  most  distinctly,  "  We  wish  the 
countries  to  be  maintained  for  the  empire  of  the  German 
nation." 

11. — Death  of  Ferdinand  II. — His  family. 

Two  years  before  the  death  of  Duke  Bernard  of  Weimar, 
the  Emperor  Ferdinand  II.  had  been  gathered  to  his  fathers. 
He  died  as  he  had  lived,  a  devoted  son  of  his  Church,  holding 
in  his  hand  a  consecrated  burning  taper  which  his  confessor 
had  offered  to  him.  His  death  took  place  on  the  15th  of 
February,  1637,  in  the  fifty-ninth  year  of  his  age. 

Ferdinand  II.  had  been  married  twice.  The  first  time, 
he  was  wedded  in  1600  at  Grätz,  when  still  an  archduke,  to 
Maria  Anna,  the  sister  of  his  friend  Maximilian  of  Bavaria. 
She  died  in  1616.  His  second  marriage,  to  Eleonora  Gon- 
zaga  of  Mantua,  took  place  at  Innsbruck  in  1622,  after  his 
accession. 

By  his  first  wife  he  left  two  sons  and  two  daughters. 
The  sons  were  Ferdinand  III.,  who  succeeded  him,  and 
Leopold  William.  The  latter,  born  in  1614,  has  become 
notorious  as  one  of  the  richest  ecclesiastical  pluralists  (having 
as  a  boy  of  fifteen  accumulated  no  fewer  than  nine  spiri- 
tual dignities,  among  which  was  that  of  grand  master  of 
the  Teutonic  order),  and  as  the  successor  of  Gallas,  and 
most  consistent  loser  of  all  the  battles  he  fought.  The  tenth 
dignity  with  which  he  was  invested  was  a  secular  one :  he 
was  for  ten  years,  from  1646  to  1656,  governor  of  the  Spanish 
Netherlands,  with  residence  at  Brussels.  The  eleventh  dignity 
which  fell  to  him  was  that  of  guardian  of  his  young  nephew, 
VOL.  I  25 


386  FERDINAND    II. 

the  Emperor  Leopold ;   in  which  capacity  he    greatly  con- 
tributed to  the  rise  of  the  house  of  Schwarzenberg. 

Leopold  William  was  a  gay,  easy-tempered  prince,  and  a 
great  patron  of  the  fine  arts ;  he  collected  in  the  Netherlands 
the  nucleus  of  pictures  which,  combined  with  the  gallery  of 
Rodolph  IL,  form  the  stock  from  which  the  present  Imperial 
Gallery  of  Vienna  has  grown.  He  had  for  his  court  painter 
the  celebrated  Teniers,  who  purchased  for  his  master  many 
of  the  pictures  from  the  gallery  of  Charles  I.  of  England. 

On  account  of  the  enfeebled  state  of  his  naturally  delicate 
constitution,  he  retired,  in  1656,  from  Brussels  to  Vienna, 
where,  after  the  death  of  his  brother  Ferdinand  III.,  he 
undertook  the  guardianship  of  the  young  Emperor  Leopold  I. 
Yet,  notwithstanding  his  drinking  asses'  milk,  and  even 
bathing  in  it,  he  never  recovered.  He  died  20th  of  Novem- 
ber, 1662,  of  the  gravel. 

Of  the  two  daughters  of  the  Emperor  Ferdinand  II.,  the 
eldest,  Maria  Anna,  born  in  1610,  was  at  first  intended  either 
to  marry  the  great  Prince  of  Transylvania,  Bethlen  Gabor,  or 
the  Prince  of  Wales;  at  last,  instead  of  these  two  Protestants, 
she  married  the  very  Catholic  Elector  of  Bavaria. 

Bethlen  Gabor  married  in  1626  the  sister  of  the  great 
Elector  of  Brandenburg,  and  died  three  years  after.  Suffering 
from  dropsy,  he  put  himself  under  the  treatment  of  a  physician 
who  had  been  especially  recommended  to  him  from  the  court 
of  Vienna.  Six  weeks  after  this  great  man,  being  not  more 
than  forty-eight  years  of  age,  was  in  his  coffin,  after  having 
escaped  unscathed  from  forty -two  battles.  The  imperial 
camarilla  removed  that  dangerous  neighbour  of  the  Habsburg 
dominions  by  one  of  those  Spanish-Jesuit  expedients,  poison 
and  the  dagger,  which,  down  to  the  assassination  of  the 
French  ambassadors  at  the  Congress  of  Rastadt,  have  so 
often  been  resorted  to  by  Austrian  policy. 

Concerning  the  matrimonial  project  with  the  Prince  of 
Wales,  afterwards  Charles  I.  of  England,  the  reverend  fathers 
of  the  Society  of  Jesus  gave  a  very  remarkable  opinion,  which 
is  recorded  in  Khevenhüller.  It  is  said  in  it :  "  Commhmm 
Esther  cum  Ahasvcro  pro  recreando  ^opulo  Christi  qui  tot  annis  in 


AUSTRIAN     PLANS     FOR     CONVERTING     ENGLAND  387 

Anglia  sub  j'ugo  sevvitutis  Calvinistica  gemuit,  non  solum  judico 
liceve,  sed  summe  expedire."  Also  Prince  Eggenberg,  the  premier 
of  Ferdinand  IL,  was  favourable  to  the  match,  and  wrote,  in 
giving  his  opinion  about  it :  "  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  England 
would  now  rather  be  converted  by  Germany  than  by  Spain  ; 
since,  in  times  of  yore,  the  greater  part  of  Germany  was 
brought  to  the  Christian  faith  by  missionaries  from  England." 

These  Austrian  plans  for  converting  England  in  the  seven- 
teenth century  may  be  of  particular  interest  now,  inasmuch  as 
his  Eminence  Cardinal  Wiseman,  as  has  recently  transpired,  is  on  the 
most  intimate  terms  with  the  cabinet  of  Vienna} 

Maximilian  of  Bavaria,  when  he  married  Maria  Anna,  was 
already  sixty-two  years  old,  while  she  had  but  completed  her 
twenty-fifth  year.  He  had  just  lost  his  first  wife,  a  princess 
of  Lorraine,  by  whom  he  had  no  children.  Maria  Anna, 
who  was  his  own  niece,  bore  him  Ferdinand  Maria,  the  father 
of  that  Maximilian  Emanuel  who,  in  the  war  of  the  Spanish 
succession,  was  outlawed  by  Austria. 

Cecilia,  the  younger  daughter  of  Ferdinand  XL,  was,  after 
having  attained  her  twenty-sixth  year  in  1637,  married  to 
King  Vladislaus  IV.  of  Poland,  who  was  her  senior  by  sixteen 
years.  She  died,  without  having  borne  him  any  children,  in 
1644. 

1  The  reader  is  reminded  that  this  part  of  the  German  original 
(vol.  iv.,  p.  74)  was  printed  as  far  back  as  1852. 


38S  FERDINAND    III. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

Ferdinand   III. — (1637-1657). 

/. Personal  notices  of  the  Emperor — The  premier   Maximilian 

von  Trautmannsdorf, 

Ferdinand  II.  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  Ferdinand  III., 
born  in  1608,  at  Grätz ;  crowned  as  King  of  Hungary  in 
1625;  married,  in  1631,  to  the  Spanish  Infanta  Maria  Anna, 
his  senior  by  seventeen  years  ;  and,  since  1636,  Roman  King- 
elect. 

Ferdinand  III.  was  of  very  delicate  constitution.  In  the 
latter  days  of  his  life,  which  was  cut  short  at  the  early  age  of 
forty-nine,  he  was  so  enfeebled  by  the  gout  that  he  could  only 
be  moved  in  a  chair,  and  he  died  from  fright  at  a  fire  which 
had  broken  out  in  the  Hofburg  of  Vienna.  As  long  as  he 
was  able,  he  now  and  then  followed  the  chase.  Although  the 
miraculous  luck  of  the  house  of  Habsburg  made  him  gain  the 
victory  of  Nördhngen,  yet  he  was  even  less  warlike  than  his 
father.  It  was  his  most  cherished  wish  to  see  the  war 
brought  to  an  end.  He  was  endowed  with  many  of  those 
negative  virtues  which  originate  in  the  absence  of  strong 
passions  and  desires,  and  which  are  sometimes  very  respect- 
able in  a  private  man  ;  but  on  the  whole  he  was  a  monkish 
ruler,  exactly  as  his  father  had  been  before  him,  and  just  as 
intolerant  in  what  he  allowed  to  be  done  by  others  in  his 
name  as  Ferdinand  II.  had  shown  himself  in  his  own  acts. 
He  was  in  particular  one  of  the  most  zealous  champions  of 
the  doctrine  of  the  Immaculata  Conccptio  Bcata  Maria  Virginis. 
He  issued  an  order  that  no  one  should  be  made  a  doctor  with- 
out taking  the  oath  on  the  Immaculate  Conception.  When 
Torstensohn,  in  1645,  stood  with  his  army  before  Vienna,  the 


MAXIMILIAN     TRAUTMANNSDORF  389 

Emperor  made  a  vow  to  erect  in  the  square,  called  "  the 
Hof"  (Yard),  a  monument  in  honour  of  that  dogma.  This 
monument,  executed  by  him  in  marble,  was  replaced  by  his 
son  Leopold,  in  1667,  by  the  one  in  marble  and  bronze,  which 
has  survived  to  this  day. 

The  reign  of  Ferdinand  III.  fell  in  the  most  distressful 
time  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  the  never-ending  expenses  of 
which  compelled  him  to  pledge  the  crown  jewels,  and  to 
mortgage  and  sell  one  demesne  after  the  other  to  his  nobles, 
who  by  this  means  became  wealthy  and  powerful. 

Ferdinand  possessed  an  honest  minister  in  Count  Maxi- 
milian Trautmannsdorf,  who  in  his  younger  days  had  attended 
him  at  the  victorious  battle  of  Nördlingen,  and  afterwards 
concluded  for  Austria  the  peace  of  Prague.  Trautmannsdorf 
had  been  well  rewarded  for  his  services.  He  had  from  the 
Wallenstein  plunder  received  that  fairy-like  residence,  Git- 
schin,  and  from  the  conquest  in  Würtemberg,  Weinsberg  and 
Neustadt  on  the  Kocher.  Gitschin,  with  fourteen  other 
estates  in  Bohemia,  is  still  in  possession  of  the  family ;  of 
Weinsberg  and  Neustadt  they  have  retained  the  titles.  On 
the  accession  of  Ferdinand  HI.  Trautmannsdorf  remained 
lord  steward,  and  m  1639  he  became,  besides,  director  of  the 
privy  council.  Thus  he  was  at  the  same  time  the  first 
person  in  the  court  and  in  the  council  of  the  Emperor. 
Ferdinand  H.  had  honoured  him  like  a  friend  ;  Ferdinand  HI. 
honoured  him  like  a  father. 

It  was  Trautmannsdorf  who  at  last  procured  for  his 
master  the  peace  so  long  and  so  ardently  wished  for.  He 
was  the  principal  imperial  commissioner  at  the  conclusion 
of  the  peace  of  Westphalia.  Trautmannsdorf  was  not  only 
an  honest,  but  also  a  very  gentle  and  modest  man.  Early 
travels  and  repeated  missions  to  different  courts  had  given 
him  knowledge  of  men  and  business  experience ;  his  tried 
integrity  acquired  for  him  the  confidence  and  respect  of  friend 
and  foe.  As  long  as  he  lived,  Ferdinand  III.  was  well  ad- 
vised, and  the  government  was  carried  on  in  a  tolerant  spirit. 
Trautmannsdorf  was  hated  by  the  Jesuits,  yet,  in  the  teeth  of 
their  venomous  antagonism,  he  over  and  over  again  carried 


3gO  FERDINAND     III. 

the  cause  of  rational  toleration.  In  former  days  he  had  just 
as  earnestly  advised  against  Wallenstein's  first  dismissal  as 
afterwards  against  his  reappointment.  His  suggestions  not 
being  listened  to,  he  had  repeatedly  left  the  court ;  but  when- 
ever he  was  called  upon,  he  always  returned  to  the  service, 
undertaking  with  the  same  alacrity  the  most  trifling  as  well 
as  the  most  important  commissions. 

Trautmannsdorf  died  in  1650,  two  years  after  the  conclu- 
sion of  the  peace  of  WestphaUa.  His  wife,  of  the  Palffy 
family,  was  the  mother  of  fifteen  children.  He  was  succeeded 
in  his  office  as  lord  steward  by  Prince  Maximilian  Dietrich- 
stein,  and  as  minister  by  the  apostate  Lutheran  John  Weichard 
von  Auersperg,  who,  in  1653,  was  made  a  prince,  and  who, 
after  Dietrichstein's  resignation,  became  lord  steward.  The 
office  of  lord  chamberlain  at  the  Court  of  Ferdinand  HI. 
was  held  by  Count  Maximilian  Wallenstein,  a  cousin  of  the 
Friedländer. 

2. — The  last  period  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  and  the  last  Papist 
generals  of  the  Emperor,  G alias  and  Piccolomini — The  last  Pro- 
testant generals  of  the  Emperor,  Hoik,  Götz,  and  Melander — 
Holzapfel — Austrian  plans  for  seducing  the  Hessian  and  Ba- 
varian armies — Barter's  and  Torstensohn's  campaigns. 

The  latter  times  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War  were  doomed 
to  be  its  most  terrible  ones.  The  fury  of  the  contest  did  not 
spend  itself,  until  the  general  exhaustion  separated  the  angry 
combatants.  Awful  as  the  rage  had  been  with  which  the  two 
German  parties  assailed  each  other  in  combat  for  life  and  death 
from  the  very  beginning,  the  punishment  now  was  just  as 
awful  which  Germany  had  to  submit  to  from  the  strangers 
who  had  so  made  the  war  their  own  that  the  Emperor  had  to 
wait  for  their  pleasure  to  conclude  peace.  Sweden  was  not  in 
a  hurry,  and  still  less  was  France. 

Armies  composed  of  nearly  all  the  civilised  and  savage 
peoples  of  Europe  were  disporting  themselves  on  German  soil. 
On  the  side  of  the  Protestants,  there  were  first  Hungarians, 
English,  and  Scotch  ;  afterwards  Swedes  and  Finlanders ;  and 


1 


SAVAGE    WARFARE  39 1 

at  last  French.  On  the  side  of  the  Papists,  Spaniards  and 
Itahans,  Walloons,  Irish,  and  likewise  some  English  and 
Scotch ;  besides  whole  hosts  of  Croats,  Poles,  and  Cossacks, 
who  fought  with  Germans  against  Germans  on  German  ground. 
Nearly  every  trace  of  the  spirit  of  German  nationality  seemed 
to  be  extinguished  by  the  religious  quarrel,  fanned  in  the  first 
instance  by  the  dogmatical  fury  of  the  theologians,  and  kept 
alive  by  the  political  lust  of  gain  of  the  princes.  The  good- 
natured  German  people,  quietly  submitting  to  be  kept  in 
leading-strings  by  its  spiritual  and  secular  rulers,  patiently 
allowed  itself  for  years  to  be  abused  in  fighting  side  by  side 
with  the  most  savage  hordes  of  Europe,  to  drain  the  life-blood 
of  its  German  brethren. 

The  manner  in  which  Mansfeld,  the  Protestant  partisan, 
carried  on  the  war,  has  been  described  before.  The  Hun- 
garians, who  served  as  auxiliaries  of  the  Bohemians,  committed 
the  most  atrocious  cruelties  from  the  very  beginning  of  the  war. 
In  the  diary  of  Prince  Anhalt,  of  the  3rd  of  September,  1620, 
when  the  Protestant  army  lay  near  Egenburg,  it  is  said  of 
them :  "//_y  avoit  tm  chastau  aupres  Fiirnthal,  queprirent  les  Hongrois 
(avec  quelqiie  peu  de  nos  Mottsquetaires)  par  feu,  et  puis  sortis  encore 
que  les  dits  Moiisq.  leur  vouloyent  donner  quartier  si  est  ce,  que  les 
Hongrois  ne  vouliirent  pas  et  tuerent  60  personnes  n^espargnans  mil 
sexe,  mesmes  ils  tiioycnt  de  nos  soldats  qui  avoycnt  du  butin.  C'est 
une  nation  tres  barbare."  Nor  was  the  Swedish  army  any  longer 
composed  of  those  pious  men  whom  Gustavus  Adolphus  had 
brought  with  him  across  the  Baltic,  who  had  prayers  twice  a 
day,  and  who  kept  strict  discipline.  The  fury  of  war  had 
changed  this  godly  and  decorous  host  into  a  ferocious  band, 
which  carried  on  the  soldier's  trade  with  all  the  horrors  and 
atrocities  of  exaction  and  cruelty.  The  "  Swedish  draught  "  ^ 
became  at  that  time  proverbial  in  Germany.  Of  Torstensohn 
alone  it  is  recorded  that  he  carried  on  the  war  in  the  most 
chivalrous   manner,  not  only  treating  the  imperial  generals 

*  The  victim  of  this  cruelty  was  laid  on  the  ground,  and  water  poured 
down  his  throat,  causing  the  most  dreadful  distension  of  the  stomach,  until 
the  persons  thus  tortured  consented  to  reveal  the  hiding-place  of  their 
property  and  treasure. — Translator. 


392  FERDINAND     III. 

and  officers,  his  prisoners,  with  the  greatest  consideration, 
but  also  keeping  such  good  discipline  as  in  1645,  when  his 
army  stood  before  Vienna,  to  cause  soldiers  who  had  com- 
mitted plunder  and  violence  to  run  the  gauntlet.  In  return 
for  the  considerate  conduct  of  the  general,  one  of  his  valets 
was  allowed,  with  an  imperial  passport,  to  come  from  the 
Swedish  headquarters  to  Vienna  to  make  purchases  there  for 
his  master. 

The  imperial  soldiery,  however,  raged  much  worse  in  their 
own  country  than  even  the  Swedes  did.  On  the  imperial  side 
also  the  auxiliaries  particularly  distinguished  themselves  by 
their  atrocities.  The  most  dreadful  scourges  were,  besides 
the  Poles,  the  ferocious  Walloons,  and  the  still  more  ferocious 
Croats,  who  since  the  days  of  Tilly  and  Wallenstein  became 
the  terror  of  Germany.  To  them  rapine  and  cruelty  against 
the  defenceless  citizen — friend  or  foe,  it  mattered  not — was  a 
thing  quite  in  the  regular  course  of  the  profession  of  arms. 

A  real  plague  arose  in  the  Cossacks,  who  at  that  period 
were  for  the  first  time  called  into  the  heart  of  Germany  by 
a  German  Emperor.  This  savage  nation,  then  under  the 
sovereignty  of  Poland,  made  its  first  appearance  in  1620 
before  Vienna,  just  at  the  time  when  the  Estates  of  Austria 
refused  to  swear  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  Emperor 
Ferdinand  II.  He  brought  his  recalcitrant  subjects  to  sub- 
mission by  taking  at  first  4,000  and  then  2,000  more  Cossacks 
into  his  pay.  The  first  batch  of  these  barbarians  advanced  in 
the  middle  of  winter  (January,  1620)  as  far  as  Moravia,  where 
they  laid  hands  on  everything  that  came  in  their  way.  Among 
other  atrocities,  they  once  pounced  upon  a  noble  wedding- 
party  at  Meseritz,  completely  stripped  naked  all  the  gentlemen 
and  ladies  present  at  it,  and  afterwards  publicly  sold  the 
plunder,  both  dresses  and  jewels,  at  Vienna.  The  Moravians 
went  in  pursuit  and  cut  down  about  five  hundred  of  them  on 
the  loth  of  February,  and  drove  them  across  the  Danube 
into  the  neighbourhood  of  Vienna.  Here  the  Emperor  took 
them  in  his  pay,  and  formally  let  them  loose  against  the  Protestants. 
Whoever  could  not  repeat  the  "Ave  Maria"  was  treated  in 
the  most  outrageous  way.     Five  hundred  villages  were  then 


COUNT     MATTHIAS    GALLAS  393 

ransacked,  the  women  and  children  making  their  escape  to  the 
islets  in  the  Danube,  where  they  perished  miserably  of  hunger 
and  distress.  Neither  friend  nor  foe  was  spared.  A  Baron 
von  Grässwein,  a  Bohemian  who  had  done  good  service  to  the 
house  of  Austria,  and  who  showed  an  imperial  safeguard  for 
his  protection,  was  murdered  at  his  own  castle  merely  because 
he  was  a  Protestant.  In  July  another  horde  of  two  thousand 
Cossacks  arrived ;  at  a  later  period,  they  offered  themselves  to 
the  Emperor  even  in  greater  numbers  than  were  wanted,  and 
it  was  really  difficult  to  keep  them  off.  All  these  savage 
auxiliaries  were  procured  in  Poland  by  the  agency  of  the 
Radziwill  family,  on  which  the  Emperor  Maximilian  I.,  as 
far  back  as  1518,  had  bestowed  the  princely  dignity  of  the 
Empire. 

Wallenstein's  murder — much  as  the  Emperor  gained  by  it, 
especially  in  estates  and  money  for  the  continuation  of  the 
war — had,  after  all,  been  a  desperate  measure,  suggested 
only  by  the  pressure  of  the  moment.  Such  a  general  as 
Wallenstein  was  not  to  be  found  again.  Not  one  of  his  suc- 
cessors was  at  all  to  be  compared  to  the  man  who  had  so  well 
known  how  to  fetter  the  goddess  of  fortune  to  his  triumphal 
chariot.  The  imperial  court  was  with  difficulty  able  to  keep 
its  own  against  the  united  powers  of  the  Swedes  and  French  ; 
especially  as  the  former  had  the  particular  good  fortune  of 
having  retained  in  Baner,  Torstensohn,  and  Wrangel  generals 
who  were  quite  equal  to  Gustavus  Adolphus  and  Bernard  of 
Weimar  ;  and  at  last  the  French  also  had  Turenne. 

Wallenstein  was  succeeded  as  generalissimo  of  the  im- 
perial troops  by  Count  Matthias  Gallas.  This  officer,  a 
native  of  Trent,  had  served  under  Tilly  in  the  Bavarian 
army,  where  he  rose  to  the  rank  of  colonel ;  but,  having  in 
162g  passed  into  the  Emperor's  service,  he  went  through  the 
war  of  the  Mantuan  succession  under  Collalto  ;  after  whose 
death  he  held  the  chief  command  ad  interim.  Gallas  had 
greatly  enriched  himself  by  the  Mantuan  booty.  After 
having,  on  the  29th  of  June,  1631,  concluded  the  peace  of 
Chierasco,  he  was  recalled.  He  next  served  under  Wallen- 
stein, but  was  not  able  to  maintain  Silesia,  where  he  com- 


394 


FERDINAND    III. 


manded.  When  Wallenstein's  catastrophe  was  in  preparation, 
it  was  to  Gallas  the  Emperor  referred  the  commanders  of 
the  regiments,  who,  as  principal  manager  of  the  measures 
against  the  dictator,  brought  the  affair  to  such  a  lucky  issue. 
Yet,  successful  as  he  was  as  a  diplomatist,  he  never,  except 
at  Nördlingen  in  1635,  was  victorious  in  the  field;  besides 
which,  like  Piccolomini,  he  was  a  thorough  profligate.  His 
ill-luck  in  war  was  proverbial,  and  earned  for  him  the  nick- 
name of  "  army  spoiler."  The  Emperor,  indeed,  was  at  last 
obliged  to  transfer  the  chief  command  to  Piccolomini.  Gallas 
then  retired  to  his  estates  near  Trent ;  from  whence  he  re- 
turned to  Vienna,  where,  in  1647,  he  died  at  the  age  of  fifty- 
nine. 

Ferdinand  II.,  the  most  religious  Emperor  of  the  house 
of  Habsburg,  had  already  in  his  time  felt  no  scruple  in  raising 
to  the  highest  commands  of  his  army  not  only  greedy  con- 
verts, but  also  people  who  ever  showed  themselves  obdurate 
heretics.  Of  the  three  bold  upstarts  who  commanded  his 
army,  one  only,  John  Aldringer,  was  a  born  Papist.  The 
other  two,  Henry  Hoik  and  John  Götz,  were,  the  former  a 
Lutheran,  and  the  latter  a  convert  to  Popery. 

Hoik  commanded  the  famous  and  much-dreaded  mounted 
chasseurs,  who  were  called  after  him.  He  was  a  native  of 
Denmark,  where  counts  of  that  name  still  flourish.  He  had 
lost  one  eye,  and  was,  like  Wallenstein,  completely  free  from 
religious  prejudices ;  and  like  him  also  he  had  the  goddess  of 
fortune  embroidered  on  his  standards.  Having  at  first 
served  his  own  King  against  the  Emperor,  and  proved  himself 
before  Stralsund  dangerous  as  an  enemy,  he  passed,  after  the 
peace  of  Lübeck  in  1629,  into  the  service  of  Ferdinand;  who 
received  him  with  open  arms  and  made  him  a  count.  Hoik 
died  in  1633,  on  his  expedition  to  Saxony,  at  Adorf  in  the 
Vogtland,  having  caught  the  plague  from  his  mistress,  whom 
he  visited  at  Zwickau.  It  had  happened  a  short  time  before 
that  the  people  of  Zwickau,  after  having  paid  him  a  heavy 
sum  of  money,  besought  him  that  the  soldiers  of  Wallenstein, 
who  came  after  him,  might  not  be  billeted  on  them.  Hoik 
answered,    *'  My   good    people,    when    the    Lord  comes,  the 


HOLK,  GÖTZ,  HOLZAPFEL  395 

apostles  must  hold  their  tongues."  The  corpse  of  this  wild 
apostle  of  war  was  conveyed  to  Copenhagen. 

John  Götz  was  an  upstart  from  Lüneburg,  He  com- 
manded a  regiment  of  mounted  arquebusiers,  who  were  not 
less  dreaded  than  Hoik's  chasseurs.  In  the  island  of  Rügen, 
Götz  once  with  his  Croats  broke  into  a  nunnery  of  noble 
ladies,  where  he  made  his  men  commit  the  most  atrocious 
outrages  before  his  eyes.  He  was  such  an  abandoned 
drunkard  that  very  often  he  was  not  even  able  to  give  out 
the  parole.  He  survived  Hoik  and  Aldringer,  turned  Papist, 
and  was  made  a  count  by  Ferdinand  H.  in  1634,  ^fter  the 
battle  of  Nördlingen.  He  was  killed  eleven  years  later  in 
the  battle  of  Jankau,  in  1645,  and  buried  at  Prague. 

The  chief  command,  under  Ferdinand  HI.,  during  the 
latter  years  of  the  Long  War,  was  held  by  a  Calvinist,  Peter 
Holzapfel,  whose  name  was  first  changed  into  Melander, 
until,  by  the  grace  of  the  Emperor,  he  was  created  count 
of  the  Empire  as  Von  Holzapfel.  Melander,  the  son  of  a 
peasant  in  Hesse,  a  sandy-haired  and  very  zealous  Calvinist, 
had  served  his  military  apprenticeship  under  the  Swiss  and 
Venetians,  from  which  he  came  forth  a  very  able  captain  in 
war.  Since  1632  he  had  commanded  the  brave  Hessian 
army;  but  a  box  on  the  ear  which  he  received  from  the 
Landgravine  Amelia  drove  him  into  the  service  of  the  house 
of  Habsburg.  Having  turned  Papist,  he  first  undertook,  in 
1645,  a  command  in  the  service  of  the  Elector  of  Cologne, 
then  the  command-in-chief  of  the  imperial  troops,  and  Fer- 
dinand HL  made  him  a  field-marshal  and  a  count  of  the 
Empire.  It  was  certainly  a  thorn  in  the  side  of  the  lords 
of  the  old  nobility  to  serve  under  such  an  upstart,  against 
whose  power  they  kicked  not  a  little  ;  but  he  had  sense  and 
energy  enough  to  keep  his  own.  Count  Holzapfel  was  killed 
in  the  last  engagement  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  at  Zus- 
mershausen,  near  Augsburg,  in  1648.  His  daughter  and 
heiress  married,  in  1653,  Prince  Adolphus  of  Nassau-Dillen- 
burg,  and  brought  the  county  of  Holzapfel-on-the-Lahn,  and 
likewise  the  castle  of  Schaumburg,  to  the  house  of  Nassau. 
From  Nassau  the  possessions  passed  to  the  house  of  Anhalt- 


396  FERDINAND     III. 

Bernburg,  and  from  the  latter,  by  the  Felix  Austria  mibe,  to 
Austria.     Archduke  Stephen  is  the  present  holder  of  them. 

As  early  as  1637  Count  Schlick,  president  of  the  Aulic 
Council  of  War,  and  the  Elector  of  Cologne  had  tried  to  per- 
suade Melander,  by  the  promise  of  a  yearly  pension  of  10,000 
crowns  and  promotion  to  the  dignity  of  count,  to  enter  the 
Emperor's  service,  bringing  over  with  him  the  whole  of  the  Hessian 
army.  The  "  Catholic  policy "  of  the  house  of  Habsburg- 
Austria  did  not  shrink  even  from  such  expedients.  But 
Melander  was  not  able  to  carry  out  the  scheme,  as  he  was  not 
sure  of  his  officers  and  soldiers,  and  besides,  he  well  knew  the 
court  of  Vienna,  where  there  was  but  rarely  any  money  for  the 
new  counts,  especially  for  those  who  were  not  either  Austrians 
or  Italians.  He  thus  expressed  himself  about  that  time :  "The 
court  of  Vienna  has  since  the  last  ten  years  created  six-and- 
twenty  of  its  upstart  counts  of  the  Empire ;  yet  these  are  mere 
empty  titles,  sullied  with  the  blood  of  robbed  populations,  and 
yielding  all  of  them  together  not  more  than  26,000  crowns. 
Twenty- eight  generals  are  still  waiting  for  the  dotations  promised 
them  by  the  Emperor;  they  being  once  satisfied,  nothing  will 
remain  for  me." 

The  Swedes  were,  during  the  latter  years  of  the  war, 
much  more  fortunate  in  their  generals  than  the  Emperor. 
They  still  had  three  great  captains  from  the  school  of  their 
great  King — ^John  Baner,  Leonard  Torstensohn,  and  Gustavus 
Wrangel. 

Baner  was  one  of  the  greatest  heroes  of  the  Thirty  Years' 
War.  It  was  said  in  his  praise  that  he  had  destroyed  more 
than  80,000  enemies,  had  conquered  more  than  800  stand  of 
colours,  and  had  not  once  lost  an  action.  To  the  imperial 
court  he  became  a  most  formidable  foe — so  formidable  that  at 
last  attempts  were  made  to  bribe  him,  even  so  far  as  to  ofier 
him  the  princely  dignity  in  the  Empire.  But  Baner  refused 
every  ofier,  and  there  was  a  report  that  he  had  at  last  been 
poisoned,  like  Bethlen  Gabor.  The  poison  was  said  to  have 
been  administered  at  the  great  convention  at  Hildesheim. 

Baner  opened  his  great  career  of  victory  at  Wittstock 
in  Brandenburg,  on  the  24th  of  September,  1636,  where  he 


JOHN     BANER  397 

routed  the  Saxons,  at  that  time  the  allies  of  the  Emperor. 
After  this  victory  the  north  of  Germany  breathed  freely  again, 
Baner  from  thence  advanced  as  far  as  Erfurt ;  then,  turning 
back  again,  he  entered  the  camp  on  the  Elbe  near  Torgau. 
There  he  remained  stationary  for  four  months.     At  last  he 
was  obliged  by  want,  just  as  his  King  had  once  been  near 
Nuremberg,  to  retire  before  the  imperial  Field-marshal  Count 
Hatzfeld  to  Stettin,  where  he  arrived  on  the  19th  of  June, 
1637.     Having  at  Stettin  been  joined  by  reinforcements  from 
Sweden,   he  opened   the  campaign  of   1638,  driving   Gallas 
before  him  as  far  as  Bohemia.     In  the  campaign  of   1639 
he  was  obhged  to  retire  before  the  superior  forces  of  Piccol- 
omini  as  far  as  Erfurt  in  Thuringia.     Piccolomini  stood  in  a 
fortified  camp  near  Saalfeld,  where  Baner  was  not  able  to 
force  him  to  accept  battle.     In  1640  Baner  joined  with  the 
French  commander  the  Due  de  Longueville  on  the  Fulda  in 
Hesse.     Bauer's  camp  was  at  Wildungen,  where  likewise  he 
was  unable  to  force  Piccolomini  to  accept  battle,  who  now 
started  for  the  Weser,  Baner  following  close  on  his  heels  to 
protect  the  Guelphic  countries.    In  the  winter  of  1640  Piccol- 
omini went  with  the  Emperor  to  Ratisbon,  who  had  come 
thither  to  hold  a  Diet,  the  first  for  twenty-seven  years.     In 
January,  1641,  Baner  undertook  his  bold  march  from  West- 
phalia to  scare  the  Emperor  and  the  Diet  from  Ratisbon. 
Having  joined  with  the  French   marshal  Guebriant,  he  set 
out   from   the  Weser   to   the   Danube,  where   he  made   his 
appearance  before  Ratisbon  with  20,000  men.    He  bombarded 
the  town.     The  Emperor  might   see   his  enemies  from   his 
windows.     But  a  thaw  setting  in,  the  well-planned  expedition 
had  to  be  abandoned.     Guebriant  now  separated  from  Baner; 
the  French  entering  winter  quarters  near  Bamberg,  and  Baner 
remaining    stationed  in    Bavaria   at   a   short   distance   from 
Ratisbon.     Here  Piccolomini  was  at  him  again ;  but  Baner 
succeeded  in  executing  just  as  perilous  a  retreat  as  he  had 
four  years  before.     He  escaped  as  by  a  miracle  through  the 
narrow  defiles  of  the  Bohemian  forests  and  of  the  Erzgebirge 
to  the  fortress  of  Zwickau.    For  not  less  than  eleven  days  the 
imperialists  had  ridden  in  pursuit  of  him,  without  once  un- 


398  FERDINAND     III. 

saddling  their  horses.  In  the  Vogtland  he  was  again  joined 
by  Guebriant ;  he  then  passed  the  Saale  near  Weissenfels,  and 
thence  reached  Halberstadt.  Here  his  glorious  career  ended  ; 
he  died  on  the  loth  of  May,  1641.  His  death  needs  not  to  be 
attributed  to  any  other  cause  but  to  the  wild  excesses  to 
which  this  seemingly  sedate  and  taciturn  man,  but  who 
harboured  the  strongest  passions  in  his  bosom,  used  to  give 
himself  up.  He  was  often  drunk  four  days  running  with 
Hungary  wine.  On  the  28th  of  May,  1640,  in  the  camp  of 
Saalfeldt,  he  lost  his  fondly  loved  first  wife,  a  Countess  of 
Erbach,  who  had  accompanied  him  all  through  the  fierce 
war,  and  who  once  during  these  peregrinations  had  even 
given  birth  to  a  child  in  her  travelling  carriage.  He  buried 
her  at  Erfurt.  At  her  funeral  he  was  smitten  with  the  grand- 
daughter of  Margrave  George  Frederic  of  Baden-Durlach, 
and  already  on  the  i6th  of  September,  1640,  the  hoary  general 
celebrated  his  second  marriage  at  Arolsen,  where  the  young 
princess,  at  that  time  in  her  eighteenth  year,  was  staying  with 
some  relations.  But  he  enjoyed  his  newly  found  happiness 
only  eight  months. 

Baner  was  succeeded  by  Torstensohn,  formerly  one  of  the 
pages  of  Gustavus  Adolphus.  Torstensohn,  protected  by  the 
truce  with  Brandenburg  which  the  Great  Elector  had  con- 
cluded, left  in  the  spring  of  1642  the  Guelphic  countries  again, 
to  closely  press  the  Emperor.  Passing  the  Elbe,  he  marched 
through  Silesia  and  Moravia  as  far  as  Olmütz :  his  outposts 
arrived  within  six  leagues  of  Vienna.  He  then  returned 
through  Silesia  into  Saxony,  where,  on  the  2nd  of  November, 
1642,  he  defeated  in  another  battle,  on  the  fields  of  Breitenfeld, 
Piccolomini  and  the  Archduke  Bishop  Leopold  William,  the 
brother  of  the  Emperor  Ferdinand  HI.  In  consequence  of 
this  victory  Torstensohn  advanced  for  a  second  time  to  Mo- 
ravia, and  Wrangel,  who  was  sent  in  advance,  again  stood  in 
the  beginning  of  July  with  3,000  horse  near  Vienna.  The 
plan  was  in  conjunction  with  George  Ragoczy,  the  new  Prince 
of  Transylvania,  to  dictate  a  peace  to  the  Emperor. 

Then,  by  a  masterpiece  of  Austrian  policy,  a  new  enemy 
was  raised  in  the  rear  of  these  tormentors.     Ferdinand  having 


TORSTENSOHN  399 

induced  Denmark  to  declare  war  against  the  Swedes,  Torsten- 
sohn was  obliged  to  turn  against  this  new  enemy,  and  executed 
in  1643,  with  the  greatest  secresy,  an  exceedingly  bold  march, 
as  if  it  were  only  a  promenade,  from  Moravia  across  the  whole 
Empire,  suddenly  making  his  appearance  in  Holstein.  In  the 
campaign  of  1644  he  conquered  Jutland;  after  which  he  drove 
Gallas  from  the  Baltic  to  the  Elbe,  and  from  the  Elbe  into 
Bohemia,  where  the  Emperor  was  trying  to  collect  a  new 
army  at  Prague.  Torstensohn  with  only  16,000  men  gained 
the  last  grand  battle  of  the  Great  War  on  the  5th  of  March, 
1645,  near  Jankau,  seven  leagues  south  of  Prague.  The 
victory  was  so  decisive  that  the  whole  Imperial -Leaguist 
army  was  completely  scattered,  or  rather  annihilated.  The 
generals  of  that  army,  the  imperialist  Count  Hatzfeld  and 
those  of  the  League,  Jean  de  Werth  and  John  Götz,  had 
disagreed  among  themselves,  which  was  the  principal  cause 
of  the  loss  of  the  battle.  It  had  been  a  standing  complaint 
in  the  imperial  army  that  there  were  too  many  commanders. 
Hatzfeld  with  4,000  men  was  made  prisoner;  Götz  with  4,000 
more  was  killed  on  the  spot ;  Jean  de  Werth,  twice  captured 
by  the  Swedes,  escaped  with  the  cavalry  into  the  Upper 
Palatinate ;  thirty  -  six  cannon  and  all  the  ammunition 
waggons  were  lost ;  Torstensohn  had  seventy-seven  stand 
of  colours  to  send  to  Stockholm.  The  three  imperial  regi- 
ments of  Piccolomini,  Pompejo,  and  Bassompierre  consisted 
together  of  not  more  than  450  men  ;  and  somewhat  later  400 
men  marched  out  from  Prague  to  Vienna,  who,  as  Puffendorf 
writes,  called  themselves  twenty  regiments,  and  carried  120 
colours  before  them.  No  imperial  regiment  of  cavalry  had 
more  than  sixty  men  left.  It  was  necessary  to  create  a  new 
army  altogether. 

The  Emperor,  who  was  still  staying  at  Prague,  set  out 
on  the  8th  of  March  for  Vienna,  where  he  arrived  on  the 
19th,  accompanied  by  his  household  and  200  musketeers ;  the 
imperial  party  having  been  obliged  to  take  the  circuitous  road 
by  Pilsen  and  Ratisbon,  and  from  thence  down  the  Danube 
by  Linz.  Four  weeks  after  the  victory  of  Jankau  Torstensohn 
made  his  appearance  for  the  third  time  in  the  heart  of  Austria, 


400 


FERDINAND     III. 


and  on  the  gth  of  April  the  Swedish  army  arrived  before 
Vienna.  The  outworks  on  the  right  side  of  the  Danube  being 
soon  taken,  the  river  remained  still  the  only  barrier  between 
the  enemy  and  the  capital.  Ferdinand  III.  now  trembled  in 
his  Hofburg,  just  as  his  father  had  done  before  him.  The 
imperial  family,  the  whole  court,  the  treasure,  the  archives, 
were  in  a  thousand  carriages  and  waggons  conveyed  for  safety 
to  Grätz ;  many  of  the  nobility  and  clergy  fled  as  far  as  Salz- 
burg and  Venice.  It  was  the  same  state  of  things  over  again 
as  when,  twenty-six  years  before.  Count  Thurn  stood  before 
Vienna.  Ferdinand  alone  stayed  behind  in  the  capital.  Tors- 
tensohn's  headquarters  were  at  Hammersdorf ;  Ragoczy 
was  already  at  Pressburg.  The  Archduke  Bishop  Leopold 
William,  the  Emperor's  generalissimo,  was  with  a  few  troops 
encamped  in  the  Brigittenau  (Bridget-fields).  A  romantic 
but  unauthenticated  legend  relates  that  on  the  30th  of  May, 
the  feast  of  St.  Brigitta  (Bridget),  a  Swedish  cannon-ball  had 
fallen  at  his  feet  in  his  tent,  and  that  the  archduke  had  then 
made  the  vow,  afterwards  accomplished,  to  found  the  chapel 
dedicated  to  that  saint ;  round  which  now  every  year,  on  the 
anniversary  of  its  consecration,  the  gay  crowds  of  the  merry 
Viennese  celebrate  one  of  their  most  joyous  popular  festivals. 
The  priestly  generalissimo  had  no  authority  over  his  soldiers, 
who  infested  all  the  roads,  committing  robberies  on  all  sides  ; 
plundering  even  the  court  carriages  on  their  way  to  Grätz — 
nay,  the  Empress  herself,  as  she  was  travelling  to  a  watering- 
place.  The  most  terrible  punishments  were  inflicted  on  the 
perpetrators  of  these  outrages  :  officers  by  dozens  were  quar- 
tered and  impaled  in  the  principal  squares  of  Vienna  and 
before  the  gates,  whole  regiments  decimated,  and  the  ring- 
leaders buried  up  to  their  heads,  which  were  then  played  at 
with  heavy  balls  as  at  nine-pins. 

Torstensohn  remained  for  eight  months,  until  October, 
1645,  in  the  centre  of  the  monarchy.  His  headquarters  at 
Stammersdorf  he,  however,  had  left  after  four  days.  On  the 
4th  of  April,  which  happened  to  be  Good  Friday,  he  set  out 
for  Moravia,  to  be  nearer  Ragoczy,  with  whom  he  had  after- 
wards, on  the  17th  of  August,  a  meeting  at  Eisgrub.     The 


TORSTENSOHN     BEFORE     VIENNA  40I 

capital  of  Austria  was  saved  once  more  by  the  tardiness  of 
Ragoczy  and  by  the  obstinate  resistance  of  Brunn  in  Moravia, 
where  Louis  Rattuit  (Radewich),  Count  de  Souches,  another 
upstart  and  convert,  held  the  command.  This  officer  became 
the  saviour  of  the  monarchy.  De  Souches  was  by  birth  a 
Frenchman,  a  native  of  La  Rochelle,  and  formerly  one  of  the 
most  zealous  Huguenots.  He  had  once  stoutly  defended  his 
native  town  against  Cardinal  Richelieu ;  afterwards  he 
emigrated  and  took  service  with  the  Swedes ;  offended  by 
them  he  passed  over  to  the  imperialists,  and,  partly  from  re- 
venge, partly  from  avarice,  turned  Papist.  When  Torstensohn 
summoned  him  to  surrender  Brunn,  or  else  he  would  give  him 
no  quarter.  De  Souches  replied  that  he  neither  required  nor 
gave  quarter.  Torstensohn,  owing  to  the  spirited  defence  of 
De  Souches,  was  at  last  obliged,  after  a  siege  of  sixteen  weeks, 
to  march  off,  on  the  23rd  of  August,  1645.  He  went  once 
more  to  Austria,  and  from  thence  back  into  winter  quarters 
in  Bohemia,  after  having  left  behind  garrisons  in  the  con- 
quered places,  particularly  at  Kornneuburg  and  Krems. 
These  garrisons  maintained  their  posts  until  August,  1646. 
At  that  time,  the  last  public  Lutheran  service  in  Austria, 
until  the  days  of  Joseph  H.,  was  held  at  Krems  ;  within  the 
short  space  of  two  months,  10,000  country  people  took  the 
sacrament  in  both  kinds. 

De  Souches  was  richly  rewarded  by  the  Emperor  with 
honours,  dignities,  and  estates.  He  was  made  a  count  of  the 
Empire,  a  field-marshal-general,  and  a  privy  councillor ;  and 
he  was  appointed  commandant,  first  of  Comorn,  and  after- 
wards of  Vienna,  where,  as  late  as  1683,  during  the  great 
siege  by  the  Turks,  he  was  still  alive,  and  able  to  be  of  good 
service  to  Starhemberg,  the  heroic  defender  of  the  imperial 
city. 

Yet,  although  Vienna  was  saved,  the  consequences  of  the 
battle  of  Jankau  continued  to  be  very  disastrous  to  the  im- 
perial court.  On  the  13th  of  August,  1645,  Denmark  con- 
cluded a  peace,  and  a  fortnight  later  Saxony  a  truce,  with 
Sweden;  at  last,  on  the  14th  of  March,  1647,  their  example 
was  followed  by  Bavaria.  On  the  other  hand,  the  monarchy 
VOL.  I  26 


402  FERDINAND     III. 

was  protected  from  Ragoczy  by  the  peace  of  Linz :  it  is  true, 
at  the  price  of  the  Emperor's  securing  religious  liberty  to  the 
Protestants  of  Hungary. 

The  truce  with  Bavaria  was  wrested  from  the  Elector  by 
the  last  Swedish  commander-in-chief  of  the  Thirty  Years' 
War,  Gustavus  Wrangel.  Torstensohn,  to  the  great  joy  of 
his  enemies,  who  thought  him  equivalent  to  10,000  men, 
had,  on  account  of  the  sad  state  of  his  health,  given  up  the 
command.  He  was  suffering  so  acutely  from  the  gout  that 
he  had  to  be  carried  in  a  litter  to  the  battlefields  where  he 
won  his  victories.  He  returned  to  Stockholm,  where  he 
died  in  1651. 

Gustavus  Wrangel  abandoned  Torstensohn's  plan  of  pene- 
trating through  Moravia  into  the  heart  of  Austria ;  instead 
of  which,  he  came  back  to  that  of  Gustavus  Adolphus, 
of  assailing  it  from  Southern  Germany  through  Bavaria. 
Wrangel,  in  conjunction  with  the  afterwards  celebrated 
French  marshal  Turenne,  again  added  to  the  old  glory  of  the 
Swedish  arms  in  Southern  Germany,  overrunning  Bavaria 
with  terrible  plunder  and  devastation  as  far  as  Bregenz,  on 
the  confines  of  Switzerland.  At  the  same  time  Gallas  was  in 
the  Upper  Palatinate,  where  he  likewise  mercilessly  plundered 
the  country  of  his  Emperor's  ally.  The  Elector  of  Bavaria 
was  therefore  in  a  desperate  plight,  and  now  the  most  singular 
complication  of  affairs  followed. 

Maximilian  was  negotiating  with  Wrangel.  This  very 
likely  was  known  to  the  cabinet  of  Vienna,  and  on  that  account 
Gallas  conducted  himself  with  the  same  hostility  in  the  Upper 
Palatinate  as  Tilly  had  done  in  Saxony,  just  before  the  battle 
of  Leipzig.  A  few  days  before  the  negotiations  with  Wrangel 
were  brought  to  a  conclusion,  Maximilian  wrote  to  Gallas: 
"  My  dear  Count, — It  almost  seems  as  if  people  were  looking 
out  for  a  pretext  to  break  with  me.  If  I  only  know  it,  I  may 
act  accordingly,  and  throw  the  responsibility  upon  him  who  is 
the  cause  of  all  this.  I  cannot  allow  everybody  to  be  master 
in  my  country." 

Then  followed  the  conclusion  of  the  truce  between  Bavaria 
on  the  one  hand,  and  Sweden,  France,  and  Hesse-Cassel  on 


PLAN    TO    SEDUCE    THE     BAVARIAN    ARMY  403 

the  other.  In  accordance  with  its  stipulations,  the  Swedes 
and  French  evacuated  the  whole  of  Bavaria  and  the  Upper 
Palatinate.  Wrangel  led  part  of  his  army  to  Franconia,  and 
part  to  Bohemia.  In  the  latter  country  he  took  the  important 
fortress  of  Eger;  and  there,  on  the  20th  of  July,  1647,  the 
Emperor  Ferdinand  III.,  who  was  in  person  with  the  army, 
had  a  very  narrow  escape  from  being  captured  by  the  Swedes. 
With  the  earliest  dawn  a  party  of  the  Swedes  attacked  the 
imperial  outposts,  and,  after  having  overpowered  them,  pene- 
trated to  the  quarters  of  the  Emperor.  Two  Swedes  were 
already  in  the  Emperor's  room,  when  assistance  arrived  just 
in  time ;  the  imperial  soldiers  killed  one  man,  took  the  other 
prisoner,  and  dispersed  the  rest. 

Before  the  miraculous  good  fortune  of  Austria  was  once 
more  proved  in  this  case,  an  undertaking  of  the  imperial 
cabinet  had  miscarried,  which  most  plainly  shows  in  what 
light  those  who  wielded  the  power  in  Austria  looked  upon 
the  princes  of  the  German  Empire,  and  how  little  they  shrank 
from  any  expedient  that  might  further  their  own  objects. 

The  Emperor's  councillors  were  afraid  lest  the  truce  con- 
cluded by  Maximilian,  which  now,  for  the  first  time  in  the  whole 
war,  reduced  the  Emperor's  power  in  the  field  to  his  own  army,  should 
lead  to  a  separate  peace,  or,  even  worse  than  that,  to  the 
Elector  throwing  himself  into  the  arms  of  France,  with  whom 
he,  indeed,  was  already  negotiating,  and  had  gone  so  far  that, 
even  at  a  later  period,  when  he  was  again  allied  with  Austria, 
he  still  kept  up  a  secret  correspondence  with  the  French 
cabinet.  Austria  therefore  determined  to  provide  for  her  own 
security  in  any  emergency.  The  expedient  by  which  this  was 
to  be  effected  was  neither  more  nor  less  than  to  seduce  the  whole 
of  the  Bavarian  army,  to  lead  it  over  to  the  Emperor,  and  even 
to  carry  away  the  Elector  and  his  obnoxious  councillors  as 
hostages  to  Vienna.  If  this  plan  succeeded  the  Elector  would 
not  only  have  lost  his  army,  but  his  country,  in  its  defenceless 
state,  would  have  been  laid  open  to  the  full  revenge  of  the 
Swedes,  who,  of  course,  would  never  have  believed  but  that 
the  going  over  of  the  Bavarian  army  to  the  Emperor  had  been 
a  mere  preconcerted  game  on  the  side  of  the  Elector.    And  if 

26 — 2 


404 


FERDINAND     III. 


they  succeeded  in  getting  the  Elector  to  Vienna,  he  was  irre- 
trievably lost.  Neither  of  these  two  plans,  however,  succeeded ; 
Bavaria  was  this  time  saved  by  her  own  good  fortune,  and  by 
the  penetrating  sagacity  of  her  Elector. 

As  soon  as  the  conclusion  of  the  truce  by  Bavaria  was 
known  at  Vienna,  the  imperial  cabinet  issued  a  declaration 
that  there  was  no  such  thing  as  a  Bavarian  army ;  that  the  troops  of 
Bavaria  were  only  part  of  the  general  army  of  the  Empire,  com- 
manded, UNDER  THE  Emperor,  hy  the  Elector.  Orders  were 
accordingly  sent  to  the  Bavarian  generals  to  bring  in  their 
men  to  the  imperial  army.  Jean  de  Werth^  was  especially 
applied  to  ;  and  this  general,  as  wily  as  he  was  brave,  allowed 
himself  to  be  bribed  by  the  supreme  head  of  the  Empire. 

The  affair  was  managed  most  cunningly.  De  Werth  was 
especially  fitted  for  covering  such  unheard-of  treachery  with 
consummate  dissimulation,  and  for  carrying  it  out  with  an 
energy  calculated  to  overcome  every  difficulty.  To  excite  no 
suspicion  against  himself,  he  sent  in  all  the  orders  which  the 
generals  had  received  from  the  Emperor  to  Munich,  whither 
he  went  himself.  As  soon  as  he  had  made  his  appearance  at 
court,  Maximilian  caused  him  to  be  put  to  the  test  in  several 
ways,  and  by  different  trustworthy  persons;  but  De  Werth 
eluded  them  all,  and  knew  so  well  how  to  manage  all  his 
conduct,  gestures,  and  speeches  that  no  one  could  have 
doubted  his  fidelity.  The  Elector  alone,  who  was  even  more 
cunning  than  his  general,  instinctively  clung  to  his  suspicion, 
and  determined  at  all  events  beforehand  to  break  the  thread 
of  the  web  which  possibly  might  be  spun  round  him.  He 
sent  orders  to  Jean  de  Werth  to  summon  for  a  certain  day  all 
the  officers  of  his  army  to  Landshut,  where  the  pleasure  of 
the  Elector  would  be  communicated  to  them  by  the  commis- 
sioners of  his  Highness. 

1  Jean  de  Werth  was  a  Walloon,  and  had  risen  from  the  ranks.  He 
•was,  after  Pappenheim,  the  greatest  cavalry  general  of  the  century. 
Having,  in  1638,  been  made  prisoner  near  Rheinfelden  by  Bernard  of 
Weimar,  he  remained  confined  four  years  in  the  donjon  of  Vincennes, 
where  he  was  a  great  "  lion  "  of  the  ladies  of  Paris,  and  astonished  the 
world  by  his  feats  in  the  eating  and  drinking  line.  He  was,  in  1642,  ex- 
changed for  the  Swedish  field-marshal  Horn,  who  had  been  made  prisoner 
in  the  battle  of  Nördlingen. 


I 


THE     PLAN     FOILED  405 

Jean  de  Werth  now  speedily  made  arrangements  for 
having  the  plan  carried  out  before  the  arrival  of  these  com- 
missioners. He  ordered  all  the  cavalry  under  his  command 
to  set  out  immediately  from  their  garrisons  and  to  assemble 
at  Vilshofen  on  the  Danube,  near  Passau,  quite  in  the  vicinity 
of  the  Bohemian  frontier.  Hither  the  foot  regiments  were 
directed  to  march,  the  quarter-master-general  Holz  being 
forced  by  threats  to  sign  the  orders  to  the  different  colonels. 
Whilst  the  regiments  were  on  their  march,  Jean  de  Werth 
placed  a  detachment  on  the  road  from  Munich  to  Landshut, 
with  orders  to  arrest  the  commissioners ;  who  in  this  manner 
would  have  been  prevented  from  communicating  to  the 
officers  who  had  been  summoned  to  that  town  the  pleasure 
of  the  Elector. 

A  mere  lucky  chance  saved  Maximilian — one  of  the  com- 
missioners having  proposed  to  his  colleagues  the  more  pleasant 
journey  by  water  down  the  Isar  to  Landshut ;  the  detach- 
ment lying  in  ambush  for  them  on  the  high  road  waited  in 
vain  for  their  intended  victims.  The  commissioners  arrived 
on  the  2nd  of  July,  1647,  at  Landshut ;  but  Jean  de  Werth 
and  his  generals,  among  whom  was  the  afterwards  famous 
Count  Spork,  were  already  on  their  way  to  Vilshofen. 

Hundreds  of  messengers  were  now  at  once  sent  off  by  the 
commissioners  to  convey  to  the  troops  orders  for  stopping 
their  march.  Some  regiments  returned  without  delay;  others, 
whose  colonels  refused  obedience,  continued  on  their  way  to 
Vilshofen.  Here  Jean  de  Werth  led  them  across  the  Danube; 
and  all  was  going  on  quite  smoothly,  when  at  the  last  moment 
a  public  proclamation  of  the  Elector  to  his  army  arrived,  and 
all  the  superior  officers  received  special  letters  to  warn  them. 
A  price  of  10,000  florins  was  set  on  Jean  de  Werth's  head, 
whether  dead  or  alive;  and  1,500  on  that  of  every  one  of 
those  officers  who  had  intended  to  desert.  Jean  de  Werth 
now  hoped  to  win  over  his  troops  by  granting  them  liberty  of 
plunder ;  but  they  rose  against  him.  The  regiments  tried  to 
make  out  each  other's  intentions  by  one  watching  the  de- 
meanour of  the  other,  and  at  last  they  came  to  an  agreement. 
Spork's  cuirassiers  at  once  rode  off.     The  other  troops,  after 


4o6 


FERDINAND    III. 


having  first  whispered  to  each  other,  gradually  spoke  out  their 
minds  louder  and  louder ;  and  at  last  broke  into  a  threatening 
outcry,  that  no  one  should  venture  to  lead  them  over  to  the 
Emperor.  Jean  de  Werth  and  Spork  had  now  not  a  moment 
to  lose.  They  hastily  mounted  their  horses  and  galloped  off 
to  the  Bohemian  frontier,  both  being  obliged  to  leave  behind 
their  baggage,  and  Spork  even  his  wife.  The  Emperor 
received  them  with  great  honour.  Jean  de  Werth  was 
appointed  to  the  chief  command  over  the  whole  of  the 
imperial  cavalry ;  he  died  only  four  years  after  the  peace,  at 
the  noble  estate  of  Benatek  in  Bohemia,  which  had  been 
granted  to  him  by  the  Emperor,  and  where  Tycho  de  Brahe 
had  once  had  his  observatory.  Spork,  a  very  remarkable 
rough  old  campaigner,  became  field-marshal-lieutenant,  and 
died  as  general  of  the  cavalry.  The  Elector  of  Bavaria 
caused  a  month's  pay  to  be  given  to  his  whole  army ;  the 
officers  receiving,  moreover,  his  written  and  verbal  thanks, 
besides  more  substantial  tokens  of  his  certainly  very  just 
gratitude  for  having  saved  him  from  the  most  imminent 
dangerc 

Austria  nevertheless  attained  her  object  of  frightening  the 
Elector ;  who,  being  harassed  now  by  the  Swedes,  because 
they  no  longer  trusted  him,  gave  them  warning  to  break  off 
the  truce  on  the  14th  of  September,  1647.  Count  MaximiHan 
Gronsfeld,  however,  the  new  commander-in-chief  of  the 
Bavarian  troops,  was  secretly  instructed  never  to  fight 
against  the  French. 

In  the  last  campaign  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  in  1648, 
Wrangel  advanced  repeatedly  into  Swabia  ;  and,  after  having 
again  joined  with  Turenne,  forced  in  June  the  passage 
through  Bavaria  into  Austria.  From  March  to  May,  the 
hostile  troops  stood  facing  each  other  on  the  Danube  and  on 
the  Lech,  both  parties  plundering  and  robbing.  The 
imperiaHsts  had  thirty,  and  the  Bavarians — now  allied  with 
them — twenty  troops  of  horse ;  the  number  of  infantry  was 
the  same  in  both  armies.  The  whole  strength  of  combatants 
of  the  allied  Austro-Bavarian  army  amounted  to  40,000 
men  ;  to  which,  however,  were  added  140,000  camp  followers 


THE  CLOSE  OF  THE  THIRTY  YEARS   WAR      407 

of  both  sexes.  No  wonder  that,  notwithstanding  the 
strictest  orders  of  the  Elector  against  marauding,  plundering, 
and  robbing,  the  country  was  completely  exhausted.  The 
Swedes  had  forty-eight  troops  of  horse,  the  French  twenty- 
two  ;  both  together  twenty  more  than  the  Austro-Bavarians, 
to  whom  they  were  likewise  superior  in  artillery.  The 
imperialists  were  commanded  by  Count  Holzapfel,  who  was 
posted  with  Gronsfeld  near  Günzburg,  on  the  Danube.  In 
the  engagement  of  Zusmershausen  on  the  western  side  of  the 
Lech,  not  far  from  Augsburg — the  last  general  action  of  the 
Thirty  Years'  War — Holzapfel  was  killed,  on  the  17th  of 
May,  1648  ;  after  which  the  army  retreated  across  the  Lech. 

When  the  Swedes  encamped  near  Thierhaupten  on  the 
Lech,  on  the  same  spot  where,  sixteen  years  before,  their 
great  king  had  burst  into  Bavaria,  Gronsfeld's  council  of  war 
determined  upon  retreating  with  their  army  into  the  interior 
of  Bavaria.  This  retreat,  however,  degenerated  into  a  real 
flight.  The  army  dispersed  and  Gronsfeld  himself  was,  on 
the  4th  of  June,  1648,  arrested  by  order  of  the  Elector  and 
conveyed  to  Munich,  and  from  thence  to  Ingolstadt ;  yet  he 
was  afterwards  released,  having  succeeded  in  completely 
justifying  his  own  conduct. 

The  Swedes  and  French  now  entirely  overran  Bavaria. 
When  the  escort  of  Holzapfel's  corpse  marched  down  into 
Austria  they  found  all  the  inns  of  the  Bavarian  country  on 
the  Danube  quite  deserted  ;  so  that  they  were  able  to  help 
themselves  to  their  heart's  content  from  the  kitchens  and 
cellars.  All  the  people  now  fled  from  the  open  country 
into  the  woods  ;  the  Elector  Maximilian  to  Salzburg. 
Amidst  columns  of  smoke  from  burning  castles,  villages, 
and  hamlets,  Wrangel  and  Turenne  marched  through  the 
whole  of  Bavaria,  and  on  the  15th  of  June,  1648,  arrived 
before  Wasserburg  on  the  Inn,  the  intended  goal  of  their 
march  being  Austria.  Once  more,  and  for  the  last  time, 
Piccolomini  was  entrusted  with  the  chief  command  to  protect 
Austria ;  Jean  de  Werth  commanded  the  cavalry  under  him. 
The  latter  appointment  was  contrary  to  an  express  promise 
given  by  the  Emperor  to  Maximilian,  but  the  Elector  had  to 


408  FERDINAND     III. 

put  up  with  it,  and  also  with  Piccolomini  doing  nothing 
at  all  for  some  time  to  protect  Bavaria.  At  last  Piccolomini 
advanced  to  Munich,  and  two  days  later — on  the  4th  of 
October — ^Jean  de  Werth  surprised  Wrangel  and  Turenne 
out  hunting  near  Dachau,  and  both  these  generals,  from 
fear  of  being  cut  off  from  the  Lech,  retreated,  on  the  12th 
of  October,  to  the  other  side  of  the  river.  In  the  mean- 
while, the  Swedish  partisan,  Hans  Christopher  von  Königs- 
mark,^  sent  by  Wrangel  from  Swabia  to  Bohemia,  had,  on 
the  26th  of  July,  1648,  by  a  bold  surprise,  conquered  the 
"Small  Side"  (Kleinseite)  of  Prague.  This  event  became 
the  proximate  cause  of  peace  being  concluded,  and  thus  the 
long  war  ended  on  the  same  spot  on  which  it  had  commenced. 

3. — The  peace  of  Westphalia  and  the  new  position  of  the  imperial 
cotivt  with  regard  to  the  German  princes  and  to  the  aristocracy 
in  the  Austrian  dominions. 

The  peace  of  Westphalia  was  concluded,  on  the  24th  of 
October,  1648,  with  the  Swedes  at  Osnabrück,  and  on  the 
same  day  with  the  French  at  Münster.  It  was  one  of  the 
most  ardently  wished  for  which  has  ever  been  negotiated. 
The  negotiations  had  been  opened  as  far  back  as  seven  years 
before,  at  Hamburg,  but  it  had  taken  all  this  time  to  adjust 
the  balance,  the  greediness  of  the  foreigner  and  the  obstinacy 
of  the  Austrian  cabinet  over  and  over  again  delaying  the  final 
settlement.  It  was  the  first  barter  of  German  lands  which 
Austria  carried  on  wdth  the  foreigner,  but  it  was  repeated 
once  more,  a  century  and  a  half  later,  when,  after  the  French 
revolutionary  wars,  it  again  took  about  seven  years,  from  the 
opening  of  the  congress  of  Rastadt,  to  come  to  an  agreement 
as  to  how  much  should  be  taken  away  from  Germany.  In 
both  instances  the  defeated  rulers  of  Austria  availed  them- 
selves of  their  position  as  elected  Emperors  of  Germany  to 
pay  the  losses  of  their  dynasty  with  lands  not  of  their  own, 
but  of  the  German  Empire. 

1  The  grandfather  of  the  celebrated  Aurora,  the  mother  of  Marshal 
de  Saxe. 


PEACE    OF    WESTPHALIA  409 

The  imperial  ambassador  at  the  Westphalian  congress  was 
Count  Maximilian  Trautmannsdorf,  the  premier  and  favourite 
of  the  Emperor  Ferdinand  III.  He  was  the  soul  of  all  the 
negotiations,  which,  after  a  great  deal  of  opposition,  he  at  last 
succeeded  in  bringing  to  a  conclusion,  conformably  to  the  secret 
instruction  of  his  master.  He  met  the  overbearing  exactions 
of  the  victorious  Swedes  and  the  insolence  of  the  French  with 
imperturbable  equanimity ;  with  his  phlegmatic  temper  he 
always  soothed  down  the  susceptibilities  which  the  conquerors 
excited  by  their  pretensions,  and.  whilst  they  were  forced  to 
acknowledge  his  incorruptible  integrity,  he  at  last  succeeded 
in  obtaining  for  his  conquered  dynasty  very  tolerable  terms. 
Trautmannsdorf  was  modest  enough  to  allow  an  equal  share 
in  what  was  but  the  merit  of  his  own  exertions  to  the  co- 
operation of  his  learned  colleagues.  These  were  the  hot- 
tempered  Tyrolese  chancellor,  Dr.  Isaac  Volmar — whom  the 
Emperor,  in  reward  for  his  services,  created  Freiherr  (Vis- 
count) von  Riedern,  and  who  died  in  1662,  at  the  age  of  nearly 
eighty — and  the  imperial  Aulic  Councillor  Krane. 

The  Swedish  ambassadors  at  Osnabrück  were  John 
Oxenstierna  and  Salvius.  The  former  was  the  son  of  the 
celebrated  chancellor,  whose  modest  doubts  concerning  his 
own  fitness  for  a  diplomatic  commission  his  father  met  with 
the  well-known  words,  "  Veiti,  mi  fill,  et  vide  quanhila  aim 
sapientia  regatur  mtindiis.'" 

The  French  ambassadors  at  Münster  were  Count  d'Avaux, 
generally  called  "  his  wicked  Excellency,"  and  Servien. 

Spain  and  the  Netherlands  had  each  sent  eight  plenipo- 
tentiaries. The  German  electors  and  princes  (down  to  the 
most  petty  ones),  the  counts  of  the  Empire,  and  the  free  cities 
were  likewise  represented  at  the  congress.  The  Elector  of 
Saxony  had  sent  the  Aulic  Councillor  von  Pistoris  and  Dr. 
Leuber ;  Brandenburg,  Count  John  von  Wittgenstein  and 
three  privy  councillors,  Von  Loben,  Von  der  Heiden,  and 
Peter  Fritz,  the  latter  of  whom  was  afterwards  replaced  by 
Matthew  Wesenbeck.  Bavaria  was  represented  by  Baron 
von  Haslang,  Brunswick  by  Lampadius,  and  Würtemberg 
by  the  very  able  Chancellor  Löffler. 


4IO  FERDINAND    III. 

The  mediators  in  the  negotiations  of  peace  were  the 
papal  nuncio  Fabio  Chigi,  who  in  1655  became  Pope  as 
Alexander  VII.,  and  the  Venetian  ambassador  Contarini. 
The  Pope,  however,  refused  to  confirm  the  peace. 

The  principal  and,  on  all  sides,  most  eagerly  sought  for 
point  of  negotiation  of  that  peace,  which  was  to  put  an  end 
to  the  great  so-called  "  ReHgious  War,"  was  disgusting  in 
the  extreme.  All  the  parties,  the  foreign  as  well  the  German 
powers,  and  amongst  these  Protestants  as  well  as  Papists, 
agreed  only  in  one  point — all  wanted  to  be  indemnified  by 
cession  of  territories.  Nor  were  the  intermediate  petty 
squabbles  about  points  of  etiquette,  which  played  such  a 
great  part  there,  less  odious.  Those  ridiculous  and  trifling 
questions  of  precedence  ;  of  the  right  of  reception  at  the  top, 
the  bottom,  or  the  middle  of  the  staircase ;  the  honour  of  the 
first  greeting,  or  of  taking  the  right-hand  side,  were  treated 
as  the  most  serious  matters,  and  then  raised  to  the  imaginary 
importance  which  they  maintained  down  to  the  period  of  the 
French  Revolution.  Even  the  improved  Gregorian  calendar, 
which  the  Protestants  were  required  to  adopt,  gave  rise  to 
the  most  envenomed  debates,  as  they  saw  in  it  nothing  but 
a  snare  of  Popish  insidious  treachery ;  and  German  Protestant 
Christendom  actually  accepted  it  only  in  the  year  1700. 

The  great  barter  of  German  territories  which  was  ulti- 
mately settled  in  the  peace  of  WestphaKa,  yielded  a  profitable 
result  to  three  of  the  powers  only — viz.,  Sweden,  France,  and 
Brandenburg. 

Sweden  gained  most.  It  received  that  part  of  Pomerania 
which  is  west  of  the  Oder  (Vorpommern),  and  the  important 
port  of  Stettin,  besides  the  duchy  of  Bremen  at  the  mouth  of 
the  Weser.  In  these  two  provinces  the  German  Empire 
again  lost  two  coastlands,  important  for  her  commerce,  in 
addition  to  that  most  important  one  which  the  unpatriotic 
pohcy  of  Charles  V.  had  already  torn  from  the  German 
Empire  and  made  over  to  the  crown  of  Spain.  Bremen 
especially  was  of  such  consequence,  in  a  commercial  point 
of  view,  that,  not  more  than  eight  years  afterwards,  Crom- 
well, who   coveted  it,  formed  the  intention  of  snatching  it 


PEACE     OF    WESTPHALIA  4II 

from  Sweden,  which,  however,  maintained  its  prey  for 
seventy-one  years,  the  duchy  of  Bremen  passing  to  Hanover- 
England  only  in  the  peace  of  Stockholm  in  1720. 

The  French,  after  having  proffered  by  "his  wicked  Ex- 
cellency" the  most  extravagant  demands,  at  last  contented 
themselves  with  Alsace,  in  which  their  power  settled  as  an 
incubus  on  South  Germany ;  Strassburg,  the  principal  strong- 
hold of  the  province,  was  not  yet  given  up  to  them ;  but  they 
received  the  Rhenish  fortress  of  Breisach. 

Brandenburg  was  also  very  richly  endowed.  The  Great 
Elector  obtained,  with  the  archbishopric  and  city  of  Mag- 
deburg, the  command  of  the  Middle  Elbe,  and  the  strongest 
fortress  of  the  whole  of  North  Germany,  which,  during 
all  the  vicissitudes  of  the  perilous  Seven  Years'  War,  Frederic 
the  Great  maintained  as  the  principal  point  of  support  of  his 
military  power.  Besides  Magdeburg,  the  Elector  received  the 
rich  Westphalian  bishoprics  of  Halberstadt  and  Minden ;  of 
the  Pomeranian  inheritance,  on  the  other  hand — the  whole  of 
which  was  to  have  fallen  to  the  lot  of  the  house  of  Branden- 
burg after  the  death  of  its  dukes,  who  had  died  during  the 
war — he  only  obtained  the  part  east  of  the  Oder  (Hinterpom- 
mern)  with  the  abbey  of  Camin.  Pomerania  thenceforth 
supplied  to  Brandenburg  its  best  soldiers.  Stettin,  the  posses- 
sion of  which  the  Great  Elector  had  so  earnestly  coveted — he 
called  it  the  gate  of  the  Empire — was  only  acquired  at  the 
peace  of  Stockholm  in  1720.  The  Silesian  duchy  of  Jägern- 
dorf, which  had  been  taken  from  the  outlawed  margrave,  and 
given  to  the  house  of  Liechtenstein,  remained  lost  to  Bran- 
denburg until  Frederic  the  Great  put  forward  his  claims  to 
it  with  that  well-known  success  which  gained  for  him  the 
whole  of  Silesia. 

By  the  energetic  intercession  of  Brandenburg,  the  Cal- 
vinists  obtained  the  same  religious  liberty  which  the  Lutherans 
enjoyed,  whose  jealousy  had  until  then  kept  them  out  of  it. 

The  object  of  the  most  violent  contest  was  the  settlement 
of  the  disputed  territorial  claims  between  Protestants  and 
Catholics.  The  former  insisted  upon  having  the  status  quo 
of  1618  restored;   the  Catholics,  upon  having  the  question 


412  FERDINAND    III. 

settled  on  the  basis  laid  down  in  1630,  after  the  issuing  of  the 
Edict  of  Restitution.  On  the  proposition  of  the  electoral 
Saxon  minister  to  meet  halfway,  the  status  quo  of  the  year 
1624  was  at  last  adopted  as  the  rule.  The  Protestants, 
although  having  conquered  Austria  in  the  field,  thus  lost 
a  considerable  part  of  what  they  held.  They  retained  the 
two  archbishoprics  and  the  twelve  bishoprics^  of  Northern 
Germany,  which  had  been  secularised  since  the  treaties  of 
Passau  and  of  Augsburg.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Catholics 
retained  all  those  territories  in  which,  during  the  four  yearä 
following  the  battle  of  the  White  Mountain,  Austria  had 
forcibly  restored  the  old  religion.  To  this  category  belonged, 
in  particular,  the  whole  of  the  hereditary  Austrian  dominions, 
Bohemia  included ;  and  the  three  Westphalian  bishoprics  of 
Münster,  Hildesheim,  and  Paderborn. 

The  Brunswick  Guelphs  thus  did  not  receive  Hildesheim, 
which  they  had  so  long  coveted,  nor  Halberstadt  and  Minden, 
which  fell  to  Brandenburg;  and  Hanover  had  to  share  the 
bishopric  of  Osnabrück  with  the  Papists ;  so  that,  by  a  very 
extraordinary  arrangement,  the  see  was  to  be  held  alternately 
by  a  prince  of  the  house  of  Brunswick  and  by  a  Roman 
Catholic  bishop.  Hesse-Cassel,  which  had  so  energetically 
defended  the  Protestant  cause,  had  to  content  itself  with  the 
princely  abbey  of  Hersfeld. 

The  powerful  Protestant  house  of  Saxony  also  made  no 
acquisition  beyond  being  confirmed  in  the  possession  of  the 
two  Lusatias. 

Bavaria  retained  the  electorate,  besides  the  Upper  Pala- 
tinate (Amberg  and  Sulzbach),  which  was  taken  from  the 
Elector  Palatine. 

The  outlawed  Elector  Palatine,  and  the  likewise  outlawed 
Dukes  of  Mecklenburg,  were  restored. 

Two  of  the  most  momentous  stipulations  of  the  West- 
phalian peace,  moreover,  concerned  the  definitive  acknow- 
ledgment of  the  republics  of   Switzerland  and   Holland   as 

1  They  were  the  archbishoprics  of  Magdeburg  and  Bremen,  with  the 
bishoprics  of  Ilalberstadt,  Osnabrück,  Verden,  Minden,  Brandenburg, 
Havelberg,  Naumburg,  Merseburg,  Meissen,  Lübeck,  Schwerin,  and  Ratze- 
bur''. — Translator. 


PEACE     OF    WESTPHALIA  413 

sovereign  powers.  Holland  even  obtained  the  right  of  shutting  tip 
the  navigation  of  the  Scheldt  and  tlie  Rhine,  and  thereby  completed  the 
ruin  of  German  commerce. 

The  plan  which  Ferdinand  II.  had  entertained  of  changing 
the  German  Empire  into  an  absolute  monarchy  was  com- 
pletely frustrated  by  the  Westphalian  peace,  just  as  in  the 
case  of  Charles  V.  by  the  march  of  the  Elector  Maurice  to 
Innsbruck.  The  Empire  was  formally  constituted  as  an 
aristocracy  of  princes,  with  oligarchic  rule ;  the  different 
members  of  the  German  body  having  the  right  expressly 
granted  them  of  forming  alliances  with  foreign  princes,  except 
against  the  Empire.  The  Emperor  was  confined  to  the 
dynastic  power  in  his  hereditary  dominions.  "The  princes," 
as  the  Duchess  of  Orleans  once  expressed  it,  "  made  a  point 
of  being  considered  as  depending  on  God  alone,  and  not 
having  the  Emperor  for  their  master."  Only  when  Austria's 
miraculous  fortune  had  given  her  the  victories  against  the 
Turks,  and  the  conquest  of  Hungary,  the  ascendency  of  the 
house  of  Habsburg  was  again  felt  in  Germany.  The  petty 
princes  had  to  bow ;  but  the  great  ones,  especially  Branden- 
burg, gradually  emancipated  themselves.  The  house  of 
Austria,  as  far  as  the  imperial  dignity  was  concerned,  had  to 
be  content  with  the  prestige  of  still  retaining  the  uncontested 
precedency  over  all  the  European  princely  houses.  The  true 
supremacy  of  power  in  Europe,  hoivever,  now  rested  for  some  time  with 
France.  As  co-guarantee  of  Sweden,  in  the  Westphalian 
peace,  the  crown  of  the  fleur-de-lis  thenceforth  obtained 
an  ever-ready  opportunity  of  meddling  with  the  affairs  of 
Germany. 

When  the  heralds  flew  from  WestphaHa  to  all  parts  of  the 
German  Empire  to  announce  by  sound  of  trumpet  to  the 
warring  princes,  to  the  beleaguered  towns,  and  to  the  famished 
and  sorrow-stricken  people  the  conclusion  of  peace  which  it 
had  not  enjoyed  for  nearly  a  whole  generation,  Germany  was 
a  very  different  country  from  what  it  had  been  thirty  years 
before.  Its  fields  lay  waste ;  its  population  was  gone.  This 
was  true  also  of  Austria,  and  especially  of  Bohemia.  The 
Tyrol  only,  protected  by  its   mountains,  had  kept   off  the 


414 


FERDINAND     III. 


enemy.  In  Bohemia,  instead  of  flourishing,  populous,  indus- 
trious towns  and  cheerful,  thriving  villages,  the  eye,  as  far  as 
it  reached,  was  met  only  by  heaps  of  smouldering  ruins  and 
by  newly  dug  graves :  where  formerly  golden  crops  waved, 
there  were  now  bogs  and  a  wilderness  of  brushwood  and 
bramble ;  and  the  men  whom  the  long  savage  war  had  left 
among  the  living  had,  from  hunger  and  despair,  formed  them- 
selves into  bands  of  robbers  and  murderers,  driven  from  house 
and  home,  and  vying  with  the  active  and  disbanded  soldiery 
in  outrage  and  rapine.  From  that  time  dates  the  harassing 
system  of  passports,  which  was  then  adopted  on  account  of 
those  brigands. 

The  principal  burden  lay  now,  as  usual,  on  the  peasants. 
They  had  suffered  most  in  the  war ;  but  even  in  peace  not 
only  their  harsh  seigneurs,  but  likewise  the  selfish  citizens 
and  townspeople  did  their  utmost  to  keep  them  down.  This 
is  proved,  among  other  things,  by  a  remarkable  decree  of  the 
Bohemian  Diet  which  Ferdinand  III.  held  in  1656  at  Prague. 
"  It  being  well  known  that  the  poor  peasants,  on  account  of 
the  low  price  of  agricultural  produce,  can  scarcely  maintain 
themselves,  it  has  been  decreed,  lest  they  should  be  obliged  to 
part  with  the  corn,  the  raising  of  which  has  cost  them  so  much,  for  a 
Yidiculously  low  price,  or  half  give  it  away,  that  a  fair  tariff  of  all 
sorts  of  grain  shall  be  established,  below  which  no  one,  either  in 
the  country,  or  especially  in  the  towns,  shall  buy  or  sell  under 
forfeiture  of  the  same." 

Whilst  the  Emperor  did  not  succeed  in  his  plan  of 
breaking  the  power  of  the  German  princely  aristocracy  and 
changing  Germany  into  an  absolute  monarchy,  he  carried 
out  his  object,  at  least  to  a  certain  extent,  in  his  hereditary 
dominions.  The  principal  gain  which  the  house  of  Habsburg 
derived  from  the  bloody  Thirty  Years'  War  was  that  the 
ascendency  of  the  imperial  court  over  the  Austrian  aristocracy  was 
established  on  a  new  and  solid  basis.  The  old  dynasts  and  lords  of 
Austria  and  Bohemia — who  in  their  proud  castles  had  been 
the  true  masters  of  the  country,  endowed  with  "  autonomy," 
as  the  court  expressly  designated  it,  and  who,  especially  since 
the  time  of  their  turning  Protestant,  had  been  very  little  dependent 


THE    NEW    ARISTOCRACY  415 

on  the  crown — had  nearly  all  of  them  been  outlawed  and 
exiled.  They  were  now  broken  down,  those  strong  castles, 
donjons,  and  mansions  of  the  old  nobility  of  Bohemia,  Austria, 
and  Styria,  in  the  courtyards  of  some  of  which  a  moderate- 
sized  village  might  have  stood,  whose  fountains  and  cisterns 
might  in  many  instances  be  compared  to  the  grand  works  of 
the  Romans,  and  whose  kitchens,  galleries,  and  halls,  as 
Hormayr  says,  '*  even  in  their  majestic  ruins,  exhibit  a  much 
grander  character  than  the  palaces  of  modern  times."  The 
old  mediaeval  systematic  opposition  of  the  nobles  against 
the  crown  was  thereby  shaken  to  its  centre.  The  new  aris- 
tocracy had  been  only  created  by  the  court,  and  been  made 
rich  and  powerful  with  the  confiscated  estates  of  the  defeated 
old  Protestant  nobility.  Whatever,  therefore,  might  be  their 
services,  and  to  however  great  rewards  these  new  men  thought 
themselves  entitled,  yet  they  could  not  forget  the  origin  of 
their  fortune,  nor  repudiate  the  duty  of  gratitude  to  the  court 
which  had  founded  it.  The  new  Catholic  aristocracy  consisted 
of  very  heterogeneous  elements ;  besides  a  nucleus  of  a  few 
old  houses,  like  the  Liechtensteins,  Dietrichsteins,  and  others, 
who  had  remained  faithful  to  the  crown,  it  was  composed  of 
a  mass  of  new  military  nobility,  most  of  whom  were  foreigners, 
Italians,  Spaniards,  Walloons,  &c.,  or  mere  upstarts  raised  by 
the  fortune  of  war.  Such  a  body  could  never  be  so  closely 
and  intimately  connected  in  the  opposition  against  the  Catholic 
court  as  the  old  Protestant  "  chain  of  nobles  "  had  been. 

At  the  end  of  the  war  there  were  still  a  considerable 
number  of  Protestant  Austrian  noble  houses  holding  estates 
in  Austria  below  the  confluence  of  the  Enns,  for  from 
Austria  above  the  Enns,  from  Styria,  Carinthia,  Carniola, 
Bohemia,  and  Moravia,  all  the  Protestant  noble  houses  had 
been  exiled.  A  list  published  by  Von  Meiern  enumerates 
forty-two  houses  of  counts  and  barons  of  Austria  below  the 
Enns,  and  twenty-nine  houses  belonging  to  the  immatriculated 
nobility  of  the  same  province,  which  at  the  time  of  the  peace 
of  Westphalia  publicly  professed  the  Protestant  religion — 
without  mentioning  the  secret  Protestants  and  the  Protestant 
nobility  in  Silesia.     When  in  the  session  of  the  congress  at 


4.16  FERDINAND     III. 

Osnabrück  the  Swedish  ambassador,  on  the  27th  of  February, 
1647,  pubHcly  read  the  petition  in  which  these  Protestant 
nobles  urged  their  claims,  Trautmannsdorf  three  times  rose 
uneasily,  and  Salvius  was  scarcely  able  to  induce  him  to  hear 
the  petition  to  the  end.  Their  demands  were  restitution  of 
ail  the  churches,  schools,  hospitals,  orphan-houses,  with  the 
revenues  pertaining  thereto,  as  granted  by  the  dearly  paid 
for^  royal  letters  and  patents.  The  imperial  chief  com- 
missioner at  last  emphatically  declared  that  "  his  Imperial 
Majesty  would  rather  lay  down  his  sceptre,  crown,  and  life,  and  even 
see  his  own  sons  slain  before  his  eyes,  than  allow  worship  after  the 
Augsburg  Confession,  or  the  autommy  [of  the  nobles],  in  his 
kingdoms  and  hereditary  dominions."  Salvius  drily  replied  that 
such  a  thing  might  really  come  to  pass.  The  negotiations 
for  peace  very  nearly  split  on  this  point.  Yet  the  Swedes  at 
last  gave  in,  merely  reserving  to  themselves  the  right,  as  new 
members  of  the  Empire,  to  urge  their  representations  in  favour 
of  those  petitioners  on  a  further  occasion. 

The  fault  of  the  Swedes  not  succeeding  in  their  remon- 
strances lay  with  the  Austrian  Protestant  lords  themselves, 
and  with  the  manner  in  which  the  Protestant  Church  had 
used  the  privileges  acquired  by  its  first  founders.  No  sooner 
had  the  Emperor  Maximilian  IL,  in  1568,  granted  religious 
liberty  in  Austria,  than  the  Protestant  cause  began  to  be 
most  glaringly  compromised  and  disgraced  by  the  mad 
fanaticism  and  the  wanton  lust  of  controversy  of  its  divines, 
who  were  abetted  and  supported  by  the  noble  houses. 

The  first  families  of  the  country  were  the  zealous  patrons 
of  the  fanatical   and   quarrelsome    Flacian^   preachers,  who 

1  The  Majestäts-brief  of  the  E-mperor  Maximilian  II.  had  cost  forty- 
two  "tuns  of  gold"  (/■400,ooo  sterling).  See  Raupach,  "Evangelisches 
Oestreich,"  iii..  124,  note. 

'•*  The  Flacian  sect  carried  the  Lutheran  doctrine  of  original  sin  to 
such  lengths  as  to  teach  that  man  was  not  only  sinful,  but  sin  itself.  A 
subdivision  of  them,  calling  themselves  Magdeburgians,  from  Joachim  of 
Magdeburg,  held  the  doctrine  that  man  was  sin  itself,  even  in  the  grave 
and  to  the  last  judgment.  Others,  the  Spangenbergians,  from  Cyriacus 
Spangenberg,  believed  man  to  be  sin  itself  only  before  regeneration,  after 
which  he  was  a  deadened  sin.  The  two  sects  assailed  each  other  with  the 
most  odious  abuse,  the  latter  calling  the  former  Cadaverists  and  Grave- 
sinners,  and  they  in  return  calling  the  others  Corpse-praisers,  &c. 


\ 


FAMILY     OF    FERDINAND     III.  4I7 

gave  the  spectacle  of  the  most  scandalous  controversies. 
But,  with  all  this  fanatical  zeal,  the  Protestant  nobles  showed 
in  their  lives  how  very  little  they  cared  for  anything  beyond 
the  dead  letter  of  the  dogma.  The  Protestant  physician 
Florian  Crucius  writes,  on  the  13th  of  August,  1619 — even 
before  the  battle  of  the  White  Mountain  —  a  letter  which 
contains  the  following  remarkable  passage  concerning  those 
Protestant  lords :  "  In  the  midst  of  the  general  distress  they 
give  vent  to  their  tyranny  against  the  peasants.  And  there 
are  among  them  great  numbers  of  traitors  who,  under  the 
cloak  of  the  gospel,  are  mere  downright  Epicureans,  not 
caring  for  any  religion  but  for  that  which  panders  to  their 
palates  and  to  their  lusts." 

Thus  the  Protestant  nobility  had  for  the  most  part  de- 
served their  fate,  and  they  merely  earned  the  punishment 
of  their  own  sins.  Most  of  them  soon  became  converts  to 
Popery,  and,  as  is  usually  the  case,  the  most  fanatical  cham- 
pions of  the  religion  which  their  houses  had  been  the  fore- 
most to  assail  as  long  as  there  was  anything  to  be  gained  by 
their  opposition. 

4. — Diet  of  Ratisbon — Death  of  Ferdinand  II I. ^-His  family. 

Ferdinand  III.  summoned  an  Imperial  Diet,  the  last  but 
one  as  long  as  the  Holy  Roman  Empire  lasted,  to  Ratisbon 
in  1653,  for  the  purpose  of  having  his  son  Archduke  Fer- 
dinand elected  King  of  the  Romans.  The  latter,  born  in 
1633,  was,  at  the  age  of  thirteen,  elected  King  of  Bohemia, 
and  the  year  after,  King  of  Hungary,  under  the  name  of 
Ferdinand  IV.  At  the  age  of  twenty,  he  became  King- 
elect  of  the  Romans ;  but  he  died  the  year  after  of  the 
smallpox,  on  the  gth  of  July,  1654. 

After  the  death  of  Ferdinand  IV.,  Leopold,  the  second 
son  of  Ferdinand  III.,  hitherto  intended  for  the  Church,  was 
elected  King  of  Hungary,  at  the  age  of  fifteen,  in  1655,  and 
King  of  Bohemia  the  year  after.  Before  his  election  as  King 
of  the  Romans  could  be  accomplished,  the  Emperor  Fer- 
dinand III.  died  suddenly,  on  Easter  Day,  April  2,  1657,  at 
VOL.  I  27 


4l8  FERDINAND    III. 

the  early  age  of  fifty-seven.  The  debihtated  monarch  died 
from  the  effects  of  a  fright.  A  fire  broke  out  in  the  night, 
between  eleven  and  twelve,  in  the  imperial  palace,  in  the 
very  apartment  where  the  Emperor  lay  sick.  A  halberdier  of 
the  guard,  who  wished  to  save  the  youngest  imperial  prince, 
an  infant  only  two  months  old,  fell  with  the  cradle,  which 
broke,  without  hurting  the  child,  who,  however,  died  the 
year,  after ;  but  the  father  had  been  so  much  frightened  by 
the  accident  that  three  hours  afterwards  he  breathed  his 
last. 

Ferdinand  III.  had  had  three  wives.  The  first,  Maria 
Anna,  the  mature  daughter  of  King  Philip  III.  of  Spain, 
whom  he  married  in  1631,  died  suddenly  in  childbed  at  Linz, 
in  1646:  a  female  child — who,  however,  died  soon  after — 
was  taken  by  surgical  means  from  the  mother  after  her  death. 
He  then  married,  in  1648,  Maria  Leopoldina,  the  daughter  of 
his  uncle  Leopold  of  Tyrol;  she  died  in  1649,  at  the  age 
of  seventeen,  twelve  days  after  the  birth  of  a  son.  His  third 
wife,  to  whom  he  was  united  in  1651,  and  who  survived  him 
nearly  thirty  years,  was  an  Italian  princess,  Eleonora  Gonzaga 
of  Mantua,  the  niece  of  his  stepmother,  and  at  the  time  of  the 
marriage  twenty-four  years  of  age.  In  her  person  mystic 
devotion  and  worldly  vanity  were  blended  in  a  most  remark- 
able manner.  In  1662  she  founded  an  order  of  the  "Female 
Slaves  of  Virtue  " ;  in  166S  the  order  of  the  Star  of  the  Cross, 
for  Roman  Catholic  ladies,  in  honour  of  a  crucifix  which  had 
remained  uninjured  during  several  fires  which  broke  out  in  the 
Hofburg  in  1667 ;  and  she  every  week  lay  prostrate  at  the  feet 
of  her  Jesuit  confessor,  craving  his  absolution.  But  she  was 
exceedingly  ambitious  and  domineering,  and  retained  to  the 
day  of  her  death  the  greatest  influence  over  her  stepson 
Leopold  I.,  of  whose  court  she  was  the  centre  and  the 
ruling  spirit.  She  inhabited  the  garden-palace  called  the 
Old  Favorita,  which  was  destroyed,  even  in  her  lifetime, 
during  the  great  siege  of  the  Turks  in  1684,  and  on  the 
site  of  which  the  Emperor  Joseph  I.  afterwards  caused  the 
present  Augarten  to  be  laid  out.  There  Eleonora  Gonzaga 
kept  her  own  most  magnificent  court,  which  to  the  last  days 


FERDINANDS    WIVES  419 

of  her  life  she  knew  how  to  make  most  pleasant  and  brilliant 
by  comedies,  ballets,  lotteries,  and  other  Italian  amusements, 
which  she  first  introduced  in  Vienna.  She  died  in  1686,  at 
the  age  of  fifty-nine,  after  an  illness  of  three  weeks. 

By  these  three  wives  Ferdinand  III.  left  two  sons  and 
three  daughters.  By  the  first  marriage  he  had  Leopold  I., 
his  successor,  and  Maria  Anna,  who  was  first  betrothed  to 
the  Spanish  Crown  Prince  Balthazar;  but  who,  after  the 
death  of  that  youth  at  the  age  of  seventeen,  in  1646,  was 
married  in  164g,  when  only  fifteen,  to  his  father,  King 
Philip  IV. 

By  his  second  wife  Ferdinand  III.  had  a  son,  Charles 
Joseph,  who  at  the  age  of  thirteen  became  Bishop  of  Passau 
and  grand  master  of  the  Teutonic  order,  but  died  two  years 
after,  in  1664. 

His  third  wife  bore  him  the  two  princesses — Eleonora 
Maria,  who  in  1670  married,  at  the  age  of  seventeen,  King 
Michael  of  Poland,  and  after  his  death,  in  1678,  Duke  Charles 
of  Lorraine,  the  grandfather  of  the  husband  of  Maria  Theresa ; 
and  also  Maria  Anna  Josepba,  who  in  1678,  at  the  age  of 
twenty-four,  married  the  first  Papist  Elector  Palatine  John 
William. 


420  LEOPOLD    I. 


CHAPTER   IX 

Leopold  I. — (1657- 1705). 

7. — The  election  of  the  Emperor  at  Frankfort, 

The  reign  of  Leopold  L  was  one  of  the  longest  and  most 
warlike  in  the  history  of  Austria.  It  comprised  three  great 
wars  with  France,  extending  altogether  over  twenty-two 
years,  and  two  severe  wars  with  the  Turks,  extending  over 
twenty-one,  besides  three  serious  insurrections  of  the  Hun- 
garians. Leopold,  although  called  by  the  Jesuits  "  the 
Great,"  was  one  of  the  weakest  rulers  on  record ;  but  if  ever 
at  any  period  the  extraordinary  fortune  of  Austria  was  mani- 
fest, it  was  in  his  reign.  She  came  off  victorious  out  of  the 
last  war  with  France,  and  likewise  out  of  the  Turkish  cam- 
paign ;  and  Hungary  also,  after  being  wrested  from  the 
Turks,  was  reduced  to  obedience.  Even  as  it  has  ever  been 
proved  in  the  history  of  the  world,  that  war  is  one  of  the 
most  effective  means  for  the  promotion  of  despotism,  thus 
also  the  house  of  Habsburg  derived  from  these  wars  a  con- 
siderable increase  of  its  ascendency  in  the  Empire  ;  and  the 
German  princes,  after  having  gained  much  ground  in  the 
peace  of  Westphalia,  were  only  too  soon  to  feel  the  supremacy 
of  the  imperial  power  again,  and  might  have  felt  it  even  more 
strongly,  had  it  not  been  for  Austria's  new  rival,  Prussia. 

Leopold  was  born  in  1640,  and,  being  a  younger  son,  he 
had  been  intended  for  the  Church.  His  instructor  was  the 
Jesuit  Neidhard,  or,  in  the  Italian  version  of  his  name, 
Everard  Nitardi,  who  afterwards,  as  the  confessor  of  the 
Queen  of  Spain,  Leopold's  sister,  became  cardinal  and  grand 
inquisitor,  having,  it  is  said,  insinuated  himself  into  the  dis- 
tinguished favour  of  that  royal  lady  by  secretly  furnishing 
her  every  morning  before  mass  with  a  small  flask  of  wine. 


FRENCH     INTRIGUES  42I 

Neidhard  had  given  his  pupil  a  genuine  Spanish,  bigoted, 
and  gloomy  education  ;  the  childish  play  of  Leopold  con- 
sisted in  decorating  images  of  saints  and  little  altars.  On 
the  death  of  his  elder  brother,  Ferdinand  IV.,  in  1654, 
Leopold  became  heir-presumptive  of  Austria ;  in  1665  his 
father  had  him  crowned  King  of  Hungary,  and  in  1666 
King  of  Bohemia.  But  the  old  Emperor  died  before  he  was 
able  to  have  his  son  elected  King  of  the  Romans. 

It  remained  long  doubtful  whether  the  house  of  Habsburg 
would  retain  the  imperial  crown  of  Germany  ;  the  interregnum 
lasted  more  than  fifteen  months,  as,  notwithstanding  the  op- 
position of  Dr.  Volmar,  Leopold's  ambassador  at  Frankfort, 
a  French  embassy  had  been  admitted  there.  It  consisted  of 
the  celebrated  Marshal  Antony,  Due  de  Grammont,  and  of 
M.  de  Lionne,  Marquis  de  Fresne.^  These  two  ambassadors 
made  a  magnificent  entry  into  Frankfort,  attended  by  their 
cavaliers,  equerries,  and  pages,  with  a  train  of  halberdiers 
and  running  footmen,  cooks  and  grooms,  trumpeters  and 
kettledrummers,  with  their  gilt  and  varnished  carriages, 
splendidly  caparisoned  horses  and  mules  ;  besides  which  a 
long  file  of  baggage-waggons  had  preceded  them, 

France  had  gained  over  by  enormous  bribes  the  Elector- 
Archbishop  John  Philip  of  Mayence  (no  other  than  the 
celebrated  Count  Schönborn,  who  in  1658  formed  the  Con- 
federation of  the  Rhine  of  that  century)  and  the  good-natured 
Elector  Maximilian  Henry  of  Cologne,  a  prince  of  the  house 
of  Bavaria ;  also  the  shrewd  Elector  Palatine,  the  son  of  the 
"  Winter  King  "  of  Bohemia  ;  and  lastly,  the  ambassadors  of 
the  Great  Elector  of  Brandenburg,  who  was  just  then  absent 
in  Prussia,  over  which  he  had  succeeded  in  acquiring  the 
sovereign  power.     These  ambassadors  were  Prince  Maurice 

1  The  titles  of  the  two  ambassadors  figured  as  follows :  Grammont  as 
"  Due,  Pair,  et  Marechal  de  France,  Ministre  d'Estat,  Souverain  de 
Bidache,  Gouverneur  et  Lieutenant-general  en  Navarre  et  Bearn,  de  la 
Citadelle  de  S.  Jean  de  pied.  Port  de  la  Ville  et  Chateau  de  Bayonne  et 
Pays  de  Labourt,  Maistre  de  Camp  du  Regiment  des  Gardes  du  Roy  Tres 
Chrestien,  Ambassadeur  Extraordinaire  et  Plenipotentiaire  de  Sa  Maj.  en 
toute  I'estendue  de  I'Empire  et  Royaumes  du  Nord";  and  Lionne  as 
"Conseilleur  du  Roy  Tres  Chrestien  en  touts  ses  Conseils  et  Commandeur 
de  ses  Ordres,  Amb.  Extr.  et  Plenip.  de  S.  M.,  en  toute  I'estendue  de 
I'Empire  et  Royaumes  du  Nord." 


422 


LEOPOLD     I. 


of  Nassau-Siegen,  the  conqueror  of  Brazil,  and  the  privy 
councillors  Raban  von  Canstein  and  Jena.  On  the  two  latter 
personages  the  French  lavished  their  money  in  profusion  ; 
and  it  was,  as  Grammont  states  in  his  Memoirs,  "  more 
eloquent  at  Frankfort  than  Cicero  at  Rome  or  Demosthenes 
at  Athens." 

The  intention  of  the  French  was  neither  more  nor  less 
than  to  exclude  the  house  of  Habsburg  altogether ;  in  its 
stead  the  Elector  Ferdinand  Maria  of  Bavaria  was  to  be 
elected  Emperor.  The  negotiations  were  protracted  for 
several  months,  as  the  weak-minded  Elector  was  unable  to 
form  a  resolution,  notwithstanding  the  earnest  admonitions  of 
his  wife  Adelaide  of  Savoy,  who  was  as  beautiful  as  she  was 
energetic  and  ambitious.  When  at  last  Grammont,  in  the 
spring  of  1658,  went  himself  to  Munich  to  push  the  aflfair,  or 
at  least  to  find  out  the  real  state  of  things,  he  very  soon  con- 
vinced himself  that  nothing  was  to  be  done  with  the  poor- 
spirited  prince.  The  project  therefore  was  abandoned,  and 
the  French  embassy,  which  had  put  forth,  as  the  ostensible 
pretext  of  its  appearance  in  Frankfort,  some  complaints  of 
the  house  of  Habsburg  having  transgressed  the  clauses  of  the 
peace  of  Westphalia,  had  now  to  content  itself  with  bringing 
about  a  very  strict  capitulation,  to  be  signed  by  the  new 
Habsburg  Emperor,  who  had  made  his  entry  into  Frankfort 
on  the  19th  of  March.  Leopold  actually  signed  it,  although 
his  partisans  had  long  declared  in  their  writings  that  he  would 
never  put  his  name  to  a  compact  so  humiliating  to  him,  and  that 
he  would  rather  leave  Frankfort  than  accept  the  imperial  crown 
under  such  conditions.  After  having  signed  it  on  the  iSth  of 
July,  1658,  he  was  definitively  elected  and  crowned  on  the 
22nd.  The  ceremony  being  over,  the  Elector  of  Cologne, 
who  had  placed  the  crown  on  his  head,  said  to  him  :  "  Your 
Majesty  has  had  a  tedious  time  of  it  here,  and  has  waited 
long  ;  but  it  would  have  been  worse  if  you  had  not  signed 
the  capitulation  unchanged,  just  as  we  laid  it  before  you — 
for  in  that  case  you  would  not  have  become  Emperor  at  all." 
His  imperial  Majesty  being  at  a  loss  what  to  reply  to  this 
short  and  significant  speech,  only  opened  his  large  mouth 
and  said  nothing.     Thus  Leopold,  with  his  court,  and  his 


GRAMMONT  S     CHARACTER    OF     LEOPOLD     1.  423 

two  regiments  of  cuirassiers,  who  had  accompanied  him  to 
the  election  and  coronation,  returned  home  to  Vienna. 

The  "  Memoirs  of  Grammont  "  contain  a  very  piquant 
description  of  the  Habsburg  candidate  for  the  imperial 
throne,  who  was  at  that  time  in  his  eighteenth  year. 

"  There  have  been,"  says  the  marshal,  "  so  many  descrip- 
tions of  Leopold's  person,  that  it  is  superfluous  to  add  a  new 
one.  As  to  the  qualities  of  his  mind,  I  have  heard  it  said  that 
he  is  naturally  of  a  kind  and  gentle  disposition,  but  his  know- 
ledge of  languages  and  sciences  is  very  limited ;  for  he  only 
understands  German  and  Italian,  which,  however,  he  speaks 
very  well.  On  the  other  hand,  he  does  not  know  one  word 
of  Spanish,  which  is  very  odd,  for  more  than  one  reason.^ 
He  is  fond  of  music,  and  understands  it  so  far  that  he  com- 
poses very  correctly  most  doleful  melodies.  His  answers  are 
always  very  laconic ;  yet  he  is  considered  to  possess  much 
judgment  and  firmness.  Up  to  the  time  of  his  coming  to 
Frankfort  he  had  never  spoken  to  any  woman  but  the 
Empress,  his  stepmother,  and  he  had  given  great  proofs  of 
continence,  a  virtue  which  is  the  more  estimable  as  it  is  so 
rarely  to  be  found  in  princes  of  his  age  and  rank. 

"  He  seldom  stirs  from  his  house.  After  dinner  he  plays 
with  his  uncle  a  simple  game  called  prime  (with  four  cards), 
but  it  is  a  very  dull  affair,  as  neither  of  them  speaks  a  word. 
He  drives  only  rarely  into  the  country  to  get  a  breath  of  fresh 
air,  but  he  goes  incognito  in  a  coach  to  the  gardens  of  the 
Spanish  ambassador,  where  he  most  heartily  enjoys  the  noble 
game  of  nine-pins,  a  pastime  undoubtedly  most  worthy  of  a 
young  prince  who  is  in  daily  expectation  of  being  elected 
Emperor. 

"  Having  an  unusually  large  mouth,  which  he  always 
keeps  open,  he,  one  day,  whilst  playing  at  nine-pins  with 
Prince  Portia,  complained,  as  it  began  to  rain,  that  the  drops 
fell  into  his  mouth.  The  Prince  of  Portia,  his  favourite,  then 
taxed  his  ingenious  brain,  and,  after  having  pondered  for 
some  time,  advised  his  royal  master  to  shut  his  mouth.  The 
King  of  Hungary  forthwith  did  so,  and  found  himself  con- 
siderably the  better  for  it. 

1  The  Emperor  afterwards  learned  Spanish  from  his  first  wife. 


424 


LEOPOLD     I. 


"  The  King  of  Hungary  (Leopold)  has  been  visited  by  all 
the  Electors.  His  manner  of  receiving  them  is  rather  strange : 
he  waits  for  them  standing  at  the  top  of  the  staircase.  As 
soon  as  he  sees  them  below,  he  descends  three  steps,  but,  in 
ascending  with  them  again,  he  takes  precedence  and  the  right- 
hand  side.  The  Elector  of  Mayence,  paying  his  visit  to  him, 
observed  that  the  King  had  only  descended  two  steps ;  he 
therefore  stopped  at  the  bottom  of  the  staircase  until  the  King 
of  Hungary  had  been  told  that  he  had  to  descend  another 
step — so  punctilious  is  this  nation,  and  so  averse  to  allowing 
any  innovations  in  the  existing  etiquette." 

Marshal  de  Grammont,  anxious  to  outdo  in  splendour  the 
festivities  which  the  German  lords  had  given,  regaled  the 
partisans  of  his  King  with  extraordinary  magnificence. 
Speaking  of  himself  in  the  third  person,  he  describes  it  in 
the  following  manner : 

"  The  marshal  caused,  in  the  garden  adjoining  his  hotel,  a 
large  hall  to  be  erected,  in  which  he  gave  a  dinner  to  the 
Electors  and  to  several  princes  and  counts  of  the  Empire,  all 
of  them  belonging  to  the  French  party.  He  had  also  a  stage 
prepared,  which  was  not  seen  from  the  dining-hall.  During 
the  banquet  the  curtain  rose,  and  a  ballet  was  danced,  with 
music  between  the  acts.  The  feast  was  most  sumptuous  and 
in  the  best  taste,  and  the  Germans  were  exceedingly  pleased 
with  it.    It  lasted  from  midday  until  ten  o'clock  in  the  evening. 

"  The  house  of  the  marshal  was  at  the  same  time  thrown 
open  to  all  the  citizens  of  Frankfort.  All  the  servants  of  the 
King  of  Hungary  and  of  the  Spanish  ambassador,  notwith- 
standing the  order  of  their  masters  to  the  contrary,  were 
likewise  there ;  in  fact,  the  whole  of  Frankfort  was  present. 
Great  wine  casks  were  placed  here  and  there,  with  people 
beside  them  to  draw  for  anyone  who  pleased,  and  the  whole 
went  off  with  great  merriment  and  to  the  satisfaction  of  every- 
body. There  were  trumpets  and  kettledrums  on  all  sides, 
and  people  shouting  at  the  top  of  their  voices,  '  Long  live  the 
King  of  France  !  and  his  ambassador,  who  treats  us  with 
such  magnificence  1  We  shall  not  leave  here  and  go  to  the 
others,  with  whom  there  is  no  pleasure,  no  liberality,  no 
thanks  to  be  got.'     Such  language  was  used  only  forty  yards 


LEOPOLD  S     MINISTERS  425 

from  the  residence  of  the  King  of  Hungary  and  of  the  arch- 
duke, his  uncle,  which  appeared  particularly  surprising  in 
a  city  where,  six  months  before,  the  French  were  so  much 
hated  that  people  would  gladly  have  burned  them." 

2, — Leopold's  ministers:  Portia,  Auersperg,  Lobkowitz,  Montecticuli, 
Sinzendorf,  Lumber g,  Schwartzenberg,  Hocher,  S'C. 

Next  to  the  Jesuits,  ot  whose  order  the  young  Emperor 
was  a  lay  associate,  and  whose  influence  during  the  whole 
of  his  long  reign  was  rampant  at  court,  Count  John  Ferdinand 
Portia,  his  lord  steward,  had  the  principal  management  of 
affairs.  This  Italian  was  descended  from  a  noble  house 
which  was  possessed  of  landed  property  in  Friuli.  He  had 
been,  in  his  earlier  years,  a  friend  of  Ferdinand  HI.,  who 
made  him  chief  governor  of  his  son  Leopold.  After  having, 
in  conjunction  with  the  domineering  Empress  Eleonora 
Gonzaga,  ruled  Leopold  in  his  youth,  he  became,  on  the 
accession  of  his  pupil,  his  first  minister.  The  accident  of  his 
having  been  the  Emperor's  chief  governor  could  alone  have 
raised  him  to  the  position  of  minister,  his  knowledge  of  every 
sort  of  business  being,  as  Grammont  states,  "  the  most  scanty 
in  the  world." 

Notwithstanding  these  insufficient  qualifications,  Portia 
acquired  great  wealth  and  honour.  Leopold  even  raised 
him,  in  1662,  to  the  dignity  of  a  prince  of  the  Empire  ; 
the  Golden  Fleece  of  Spain  Portia  had  obtained  before. 
Being  naturally  a  man  of  the  most  ordinary  capacity,  he 
made  it  his  constant  study — especially  when  the  effects  of  old 
age  began  to  impair  the  little  ability  which  he  had — to  gloss 
over  the  shortcomings  of  his  intellectual  and  physical  powers 
by  a  display  of  phlegmatic  stolidity  and  stiff,  strutting  Spanish 
gravity.  His  policy  in  the  greatest  affairs  of  the  state  was 
to  let  things  take  their  own  course  and  work  their  own  way.  His 
wretched  system  of  timid  procrastination,  of  tacking  and 
trimming,  threw  him  altogether  into  the  hands  of  the  shrewd 
Spanish  ambassador,  who  completely  swayed  him — so  much 
so,  that  the  latter  once  said  to  the  Swedish  ambassador, 
Esaias  Puffendorf,  the  brother  of  the  celebrated  philosopher, 


426  LEOPOLD     I. 

"  I  am  obliged  to  lead  Portia  like  a  little  boy,  lest  he  should 
stumble."  Marshal  Grammont  mentions,  besides,  as  a  proof 
of  the  forgetfulness  of  Portia,  that  the  people  who  had  to  deal 
with  him  were  often  obliged  to  lay  before  him  the  same 
memorandum  seven  or  eight  times,  even  in  cases  which  the 
prince  was  himself  most  anxious  to  settle. 

Prince  Portia  died  in  1665,  and  the  helm  of  government 
fell  to  Prince  John  Weichard  Auersperg,  who  had  been 
principal  minister  under  Ferdinand  III.,  and  who  had  since 
then  held  the  second  place  in  the  councils  of  Leopold.  With 
the  latter,  Auersperg  enjoyed  little  favour,  having  neglected 
him  at  the  time  when,  as  a  younger  prince,  he  had  no  likely 
prospect  of  becoming  Emperor.  The  young  Empress,  the 
Spanish  Margareta  Theresa,  was  likewise  against  him,  be- 
cause, as  a  partisan  of  France,  he  allowed  the  Emperor  to 
remain  a  quiet  spectator  when  France,  in  1667,  enforced  by 
arms  her  reversionary  claims  ^  on  the  Spanish  Netherlands  ; 
and  when,  in  1668,  at  the  peace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  Louis 
XIV.  helped  himself  to  Lille,  Tournay,  and  Southern 
Flanders.  Auersperg  remained  in  the  privy  council  until,  in 
i66g,  Prince  Lobkowitz,  who  had  succeeded  Portia  as  lord 
steward,  brought  about  his  downfall.  Auersperg,  having  lost 
his  wife,  entreated  the  Emperor  to  propose  him  for  a  cardinal; 
but,  by  the  contrivance  of  Lobkowitz,  the  imperial  recom- 
mendation was  given  to  the  Prince  Abbot  of  Fulda,  the 
Margrave  Bernard  Gustavus  of  Baden-Durlach.  Auersperg, 
after  a  violent  scene  with  Lobkowitz,  then  applied  to  the 
French  ambassador,  M.  de  Gremonville,  who  promised  him 
the  interest  of  Louis  XIV.  Pope  Clement  IX.,  however, 
sent  the  letter  which  he  had  received  from  the  French  King 
to  the  Emperor  at  Vienna,  and  Lobkowitz  found  it  not  dif- 
ficult to  persuade  Leopold  that  this  connection  with  France 
had  been  the  sole  reason  for  which  Auersperg  advised  against 
any  effectual  aid  being  given  to  Spain.  Auersperg  was  put 
on  his  trial  and  condemned  to  death.  Leopold  granted  a 
reprieve,  but  sent  him  orders  by  the  Aulic  Chancellor  Hocher 

1  Louis  XIV.  claimed  a  large  portion  of  the  Netherlands  by  the  "  right 
of  devolution,"  according  to  which  the  daughters  of  the  first  marriage  were 
entitled  to  succeed  in  preference  to  the  sons  of  the  second.  His  queen  was 
daughter  of  Philip  IV.  by  his  first  wife. 


PRINCE    LOBKOWITZ  427 

to  leave  Vienna  within  twenty-four  hours  and  to  retire  to  his 
estates.  This  happened  in  1670,  and  in  1677  Auersperg  died 
at  Seisenberg  in  Carniola,  at  the  age  of  sixty-two. 

Prince  Wenceslaus  Eusebius  Lobkowitz  succeeded  him. 
The  Lobkowitzes  were  an  ancient  race  of  Bohemian  dynasts. 
The  wealthy  line  of  the  house,  the  Lobkowitz-Hassensteinr, 
had  embraced  the  cause  of  the  Reformation,  and  had  been 
involved  in  the  general  ruin.  Prince  Wenceslaus  belonged  to 
the  junior  line  of  Lobkowitz-Popel,  which  in  the  person  of 
Zdenko  Adalbert  Lobkowitz  was,  in  1624,  raised  to  the 
princely  dignity.  His  mother  was  that  heroic  lady  who  lent 
the  first  help  to  the  defenestrated  councillors  Slawata  and 
Martinitz. 

Prince  Wenceslaus  Eusebius,  born  in  1608,  followed  three 
careers  at  once — the  court  as  chamberlain,  the  civil  service  as 
Aulic  councillor  of  war,  and  the  army  as  colonel,  and  after- 
wards major-general.  He  then  became  lord  steward,  and 
having  at  last  succeeded  Auersperg  as  premier,  he  was  the 
first  man  in  the  state  as  well  as  at  court. 

He  married  in  1653,  as  his  second  wife,  a  sister  of  the 
Count  Palatine  Christian  Augustus  of  Sulzbach,  who  turned 
Papist  in  1655,  and  who  became  the  ancestor  of  the  last 
Elector  of  Bavaria  of  the  elder  line.  Lobkowitz  was  very 
wealthy.  His  fortune  in  1674,  the  year  of  his  downfall,  was 
estimated  at  12,000,000  ducats,  besides  which  Leopold  L  had 
conferred  on  him  the  place  of  lord-lieutenant  (Landhauptmann) 
of  Silesia,  which  was  worth  200,000  dollars. 

Lobkowitz,  a  man  of  stately  presence  and  fond  of  mag- 
nificence and  display,  was  of  exceedingly  agreeable  and 
obliging  manners,  always  good-humoured,  generous,  and 
open-handed.  He  was,  like  Prince  Kaunitz  after  him,  a 
partisan  of  the  French  alliance,  and  succeeded  in  actually 
bringing  about,  in  1671,  a  secret  treaty  with  France.  But  he 
was  opposed  by  the  compact  phalanx  of  the  whole  Spanish- 
Austrian  party,  headed  by  the  generals,  especially  Monte- 
cuculi.  Lobkowitz  wished  to  introduce  the  language  and 
manners  of  France  into  Austria.  He  very  justly  calculated 
that  "  as  they  did  not  know  how  to  make  head  against  the 
great  captains  of  Louis  XIV.,  one  ought  at  least  to  under- 


428  LEOPOLD    I. 

stand  how  to  keep  the  peace  with  them."  This  same  opinion 
was  about  that  very  time  set  forth  by  the  celebrated  Leibnitz 
in  his  "  German  Patriotic  Alliance  "  (Deutschgesinnte  Allianz), 
in  which  he  endeavours  to  show  that  "  the  best  means  of 
keeping  France  within  bounds  was  that  the  people  about  the 
Rhine,  her  nearest  neighbours,  should  maintain  friendship 
with  her."  This  was  the  fundamental  idea  of  the  "  Rhenish 
Alliance  " — the  Confederation  of  the  Rhine  of  the  seventeenth 
century — which  the  Elector  of  Mayence,  Count  John  Philip 
Schönborn,  then  established.  Leibnitz,  who,  before  going  to 
Hanover,  had  been  in  the  service  of  that  spiritual  potentate, 
saw  very  clearly  the  danger  which  even  at  that  time  began  to 
threaten  from  the  opposite  quarter — from  Russia.  Endowed  with 
the  keenest  penetration,  which  made  him  equally  distin- 
guished as  a  politician  and  as  a  philosopher,  Leibnitz — in 
the  celebrated  pamphlet  which,  after  the  resignation  of  the 
last  King  of  Poland  of  the  house  of  Vasa,  he  published  in 
1668,  under  the  pseudonym  of  Georgius  Ulicofius  Litthuanus 
— laid  his  warning  finger  on  that  most  important  point,  which 
to  this  day  is  fraught  with  the  greatest  danger  to  Austria. 

Spanish  haughtiness  and  Spanish  oppression  and  ob- 
scurantism were  alike  repugnant  to  the  spirit  and  temper 
of  Lobkowitz.  He  was  fond  of  pleasure,  and  a  master  of  the 
art  of  enjoying  it  such  as  Vienna  had  never  seen  before ;  but 
unfortunately  he  was  also  a  slave  fettered  by  those  chains  of 
roses  which  he  forged  for  hirnself — women  and  money-brokers 
were  said  to  have  had  the  key  to  all  his  secrets.  Lobkowitz 
possessed  neither  virtue  nor  greatness ,  but  he  possessed  much 
gentleness  of  disposition  and  a  refined  taste,  which  gave  him 
the  superiority  over  all  his  countrymen.  His  jovial,  easy 
humour  imparted  to  his  conversation  a  singularly  fascinating 
charm ;  the  Emperor,  who,  notwithstanding  his  own  gravity 
and  pompousness,  was  particularly  fond  of  the  society  of  merry 
people  and  merry  ministers,  was  never  happy  without  him. 
He  was  full  of  animal  spirits  and  liveliness,  teeming  with  wit, 
and  always  ready  with  some  pretty  bon-mot  or  other.  A  happy 
knack  of  intrigue,  by  means  of  which  he  understood  how  "  to 
push  affairs,"  served  him  instead  of  a  confirmed  habit  of 
business  and  industry.     His  keen  wit  turned  everything  and 


PRINCE    LOBKOWITZ  429 

everybody  into  ridicule,  not  even  sparing  the  Emperor,  of  whom , 
with  a  frankness  bordering  on  the  most  thoughtless  indiscre- 
tion, he  one  day  said  to  the  Marquis  de  Gremonville,  the 
French  ambassador,  "The  Emperor  is  not  like  your  king, who 
does  everything  himself,  but  like  a  statue  which  is  carried 
about  and  placed  or  moved  at  convenience."  This  jaunty 
recklessness  of  Lobkowitz  made  the  clever  Samuel  PufFendorf 
say  of  him  that  there  had  been  in  his  conduct  "  aliqtiid  ab 
i7tsania  panini  abiens." 

As  long  as  Leopold's  first  Empress,  the  Spanish  Margareta 
Theresa,  lived,  Lobkowitz  was  all-powerful.  But  when,  half 
a  year  after  her  death,  the  Emperor  married  the  Tyrolese 
Princess  Claudia  (15th  of  October,  1673),  ^  formidable  adver- 
sary arose  for  the  premier.  Being  a  woman  of  most  energetic 
and  lively  spirit,  Claudia  soon  gained  an  extraordinary  influence 
over  her  husband,  which  she  made  the  world  feel  in  a  manner 
that  could  not  be  mistaken.  Her  contemporaries  describe  her 
as  an  heroic  lady  of  great  intellect,  conversant  with  many 
languages,  religious,  liberal,  compassionate  to  the  poor,  and 
"  of  most  gentle  speech  and  expression  of  face."  Had  not 
death  carried  her  off  at  the  early  age  of  twenty-two,  after  a 
married  life  of  only  two  years  and  a  half,  great  things  might 
have  been  expected  of  her.  Lobkowitz  had  incurred  her 
personal  dislike  by  the  opinion  which  he  gave  the  Emperor  on 
her  portrait  when  Leopold  was  about  to  make  his  choice  of  a 
second  wife.  Lobkowitz  would  have  given  the  preference  to 
the  Princess  Eleonora  of  Neuburg,  the  same  whom  Leopold 
afterwards  married  as  his  third  wife.  Auersperg,  the  old 
enemy  of  Lobkowitz,  had  informed  the  Empress  Claudia  of 
that  circumstance.  Lobkowitz  was  also  accused  of  having 
indiscreetly  divulged  the  slight  doubts  which  the  Emperor  in 
strictest  confidence  had  hinted  concerning  Claudia's  chastity 
before  marriage ;  and  especially  of  having  made  some  most 
offensive  remarks,  alluding  to  the  love  of  Claudia  in  her  youth 
for  Count  Ferraris  of  Innsbruck. 

This  new  enemy  leagued  herself  with  Lobkowitz's  old 
adversaries  the  Jesuits.  All  the  artillery  of  the  keen  wit  of 
the  prince  was  directed  against  the  reverend  fathers  of  the 
Society  of  Jesus,  whom  he  most  unmercifully  lashed,  not  only 


430 


LEOPOLD     I. 


in  all  kinds  of  scurrilous  pamphlets,  but  also  in  caricatures. 
The  Emperor's  treasury  was  constantly  at  the  very  lowest 
ebb;  but  whilst  the  troops,  kept  for  months  without  their 
pay,  often  plundered  their  own  master's  provinces,  Leopold 
lavished  his  bounties  on  the  Jesuits  with  unsparing  hand. 
Lobkowitz  in  several  instances  prevented  these  foolish  gifts, 
and  even  had  the  courage  to  annul  one  of  the  most  important 
by  tearing  in  shreds  the  title  deed  which  would  have  con- 
ferred on  the  order  the  whole  of  the  rich  county  of  Glatz  in 
Silesia.  When  the  Jesuits  came  to  Lobkowitz  to  fetch  the 
deed,  he  pointed  to  a  crucifix,  and  interpreted  to  them  the 
usual  legend  on  the  label  at  the  top,  J.  N.  R.  J.  (Jesus 
Nazarenus,  Rex  Judaeorum),  in  the  following  manner.  Jam 
nihil  reportahmt  Jesiiita.  ^  Even  his  last  will,  which  was  exe- 
cuted in  all  legal  form  and  publicly  read,  bore  witness  to  the 
sarcastic  humour  with  which  he  loved  to  lash  the  "  Spanish 
priests."  The  introduction  was  couched  in  terms  of  the 
most  piteous  and  humble  contrition.  After  which  he  pro- 
ceeded to  bestow  on  the  reverend  fathers,  as  a  token  of  the 
love  which  he  always  bore  to  them,  and  for  the  gladdening 

of  their  hearts,  80,000 .     Here  the  page  ended.    When 

the  reader  turned  the  leaf  he  found,  "  board-nails  for  a  new 
building." 

Lobkowitz,  the  magnificent,  liberal,  eloquent,  and  ever- 
jovial  minister,  was  always  a  great  favourite  with  the  people ; 
even  with  the  Hungarians,  who  were  generally  so  ready  to 
grumble.  Yet  he  was  like  one  walking  in  his  sleep  on  the 
brink  of  a  precipice ;  and  misfortune  suddenly  broke  in  upon 
him.  Just  one  year  after  the  second  marriage  of  the  Emperor, 
on  the  17th  of  October,  1674,  Lobkowitz  was  driving  at  his 
usual  hour,  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning,  to  his  audience  with 
the  Emperor,  when  he  was  arrested  by  General  Prince  Pio, 
the  captain  of  the  bodyguard  of  halberdiers.  Pio  announced 
to  him  at  once  that  it  was  by  special  order  of  the  Emperor. 
Lobkowitz  found  himself  unceremoniously  deprived  of  all  his 
dignities  and  honours.  When,  with  very  natural  astonish- 
ment, he  demanded  the  cause  of  this  extraordinary  treatment, 
his  question  was  met  by  the  strict  command  of  the  Emperor 

1  Now  the  Jesuits  shall  carry  back  nothing. 


PRINCE    LOBKOWITZ  43 1 

under  pain  of  death  not  to  inquire.  On  the  very  evening 
before  this  piece  of  Oriental  justice  was  enacted,  Lobkowitz 
had  been  at  court  and  been  received  with  every  mark  of 
favour.  From  the  minutes  of  Prince  Schwartzenberg's  diary 
on  this  affair,  which,  according  to  the  historian  Count  Mailath, 
is  still  extant  in  the  Schwartzenberg  archives  at  Vienna,  the 
crimes  imputed  to  Lobkowitz  were  "  disclosure  of  secrets, 
the  alienating  of  the  princes  from  the  Emperor,  and  the 
thwarting  of  imperial  decrees,"  and  that  "for  the  exalting  of 
France  and  lowering  of  the  Emperor." 

The  affair  created  an  immense  sensation,  not  only  in 
Germany,  but  also  at  all  the  European  courts.  The  imperial 
order  was  to  the  effect  "  that  Lobkowitz,  being  dismissed  from 
his  offices  and  honours,  should  leave,  within  three  days,  the 
court  and  the  imperial  capital,  and  betake  himself  to  his 
estate  of  Raudnitz  in  Bohemia,  where  he  was  to  remain  in 
exile  without  ever  absenting  himself  or  corresponding  with 
anyone.  The  cause  of  all  this  he  should  never  ask  to  know  ; 
if  he  dared  to  disobey,  he  should  forfeit  his  life  and  all  his 
property." 

After  having  received  this  order,  Lobkowitz  went  to  his 
familiar  friend  Emeric  Sinelli,  the  father  guardian  of  the 
Capuchins,^  with  whom  he  took  a  solitary  dinner.  At  the 
expiration  of  the  three  days  he  was,  early  in  the  morning, 
conducted  from  Vienna  across  the  bridge  of  the  Danube  in  an 
open  carriage,  under  the  escort  of  three  troops  of  dragoons,  as 
a  spectacle  to  the  astonished  crowd.  He  was  conveyed  to 
his  castle  of  Raudnitz.  Count  Martinitz,  the  chief  burgrave, 
received  strict  orders  to  make  arrangements  for  his  being 
closely  watched,  and  not  to  allow  any  letter  or  book  or 
visitor  to  reach  him.  Yet  the  fallen  minister  was  soon  after 
forgotten  altogether.  Even  in  the  midst  of  this  sudden  re- 
verse of  fortune,  the  jovial  spirits  of  Lobkowitz  never  failed 
him.  He  had,  at  Raudnitz,  a  hall  erected,  one  half  with 
princely  splendour,  and  the  other  half  as  a  miserable  hovel. 
In  one  half  he  lived  and  occupied  himself  as  behoved  his 
former  splendid  station,  in  the  other  as  was  suited  to  his  deep 
fall;  and  on  all  the  walls  he  wrote  ridiculous  or  scandalous 

1  Sinelli  was  a  Hungarian,  and  became,  in  1680,  Bishop  of  Vienna;  in 
1682  a  privy  councillor  of  the  "  Conference  Council."     He  died  in  1685. 


432  LEOPOLD     I. 

anecdotes  of  the  lives  of  his  enemies.  He  died  on  the  22nd 
of  April,  1677,  at  the  age  of  sixty-nine,  having  received, 
after  the  death  of  the  Empress  Claudia,  for  his  solace,  some 
marks  of  favour  from  the  Emperor,  and  the  assurance  that  he 
had  not  deserved  any  punishment.  His  two  private  secre- 
taries, the  German  one  as  well  as  the  crafty  Italian  Mattioli,^ 
a  Florentine,  were  likewise  arrested,  as  it  was  intended  to 
force  from  them  some  confession  concerning  the  correspond- 
ence of  the  Prince  with  France,  and  the  money  received  from 
thence.  Mattioli  afterwards  fled  from  the  fortress  of  Raab  to 
France,  and  became  one  of  the  most  active  emissaries  of 
Louis  XIV.  with  the  Signory  of  Venice  and  with  the  Sublime 
Porte.  The  wife  of  Lobkowitz,  a  princess  of  Sulzbach,  sur- 
vived him  by  five  years,  and  died  in  1682  at  Nuremberg. 

In  the  same  year  that  Lobkowitz  fell  into  disgrace  (1674), 
the  Spanish  party,  and  in  its  train  the  Jesuits,  were  again 
placed  at  the  helm  of  affairs.  The  first  war  of  Austria  with 
France  had  already  broken  out,  contrary  to  all  that  Lobkowitz 
wished  and  intended.  For  a  period  of  eighty  years,  from  the 
time  of  the  downfall  of  Prince  Lobkowitz  until  the  times  of 
Prince  Kaunitz,  no  premier  in  Austria  was  able  to  rule  with 
absolute  power.  Nor  was  the  post  of  prime  minister  ever 
again  combined  with  that  of  lord  steward,  as  had  been  the 
case  under  Lobkowitz,  and  under  his  three  predecessors, 
Auersperg,  Portia,  and  Trautmannsdorf.  The  great  families 
of  the  aristocracy  thenceforth  shared  the  power  among  them- 
selves, with  the  aid  of  some  bourgeois  "  red-tapists,"  upstarts, 
and  converts. 

A  short  time  before  the  dismissal  of  Prince  Auersperg,  in 
1670,  the  Emperor  Leopold,  after  the  example  of  Ferdi- 
nand II.,  had  established  the  so-called  "  Conference  Council." 
It  consisted  of  a  few  confidential  persons,  with  whom  the  most 
secret  affairs  of  state  were  discussed  and  settled. 

The  first  man  at  the  court  of  Vienna,  after  the  fall  of 
Lobkowitz,  was  the  Italian  Count  Raimondo  Montecuculi, 
who,  after  a  long  interval,  had  gained  the  first  victory  over 
the  Turks.  The  Emperor  raised  him,  in  1662,  to  the  dignity 
of  a  prince  of  the  Empire.     Montecuculi,  born  in  1608,  was  a 

1  Mailath  calls  him  Perri 


MONTECUCULI  433 

native  of  Modena.  He  was  called  from  Italy  by  his  cousin 
Ernest  Montecuculi,  a  general-field-marshal  in  the  Austrian 
service.  He  had,  however,  laid  an  excellent  foundation  of 
scientific  military  knowledge  in  Italy,  and  continued  his 
studies  when  the  Swedes,  under  Baner,  kept  him  for  two 
years  a  prisoner  at  Stettin.  After  the  death  of  Prince  Ottavio 
Piccolomini  in  1656,  he  was  appointed  colonel  of  his  regiment 
of  cuirassiers;  he  rose,  in  1664,  to  the  rank  of  general- 
field-marshal  and  governor  of  Raab,  and  in  1668  became 
generalissimo  of  the  imperial  armies  and  president  of  the 
Aulic  Council  of  War.  In  the  last  year  he  also  received  the 
order  of  the  Golden  Fleece.  According  to  the  statement  of 
the  Italian  tourist  Abbe  Pacichelli,  he  had  a  yearly  revenue  of 
sixty  thousand  florins ;  and  each  campaign,  the  abbe  adds, 
might  yield  him  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  florins.  In 
1664,  with  the  aid  of  a  body  of  auxiliaries  of  Louis  XIV.,  he 
utterly  routed  the  Turks  near  St.  Gotthardt  which  was  the 
first  glimmer  of  success  for  the  Christian  arms  for  a  period  of 
two  hundred  years,  since  the  days  of  the  great  Hungarian 
king,  Matthias  Corvinus.  After  this  a  truce  was  concluded 
at  Vasvar  for  twenty  years,  the  end  of  which,  marked  by  the 
great  siege  of  Vienna  by  the  Turks,  Montecuculi  did  not  live 
to  see.  He  died  on  the  i6th  of  October,  1680,  at  Linz, 
whither  he  had  accompanied  the  Emperor  on  account  of  the 
plague.  Twice  before,  in  the  same  town,  he  had  had  a 
narrow  escape  from  death.  Once  he  was  all  but  drowned  ; 
and  another  time,  riding  by  the  Emperor's  side  under  the 
gateway  of  the  castle,  he  was  very  nearly  crushed  by  some 
falling  timber. 

Montecuculi  was  of  a  cold  and  thoroughly  unsympa- 
thising  character,  unaccommodating,  censorious,  and  always 
grumbling,  full  of  intrigue,  and  utterly  unscrupulous,  but 
of  very  keen  penetration,  and  of  a  well-disciplined  intellect, 
and  such  a  cautious,  circumspect,  deliberate  general  that 
he  was  called  "  Centum  Ocidi " — a  master  of  marches  and 
castrametation.  Deeply  versed  in  military  science,  he  has 
earned  fame  also  as  an  author  by  his  "  Memorie  della 
Guerra,"  in  which  he  bitterly  complains  of  his  enemies 
Gonzaga  and  Portia,  especially  of  the  latter,  without  how- 
VOL.   I  28 


434  LEOPOLD     I. 

ever  mentioning  him  by  name.  Montecuculi  was  of  middle 
stature  and  of  a  spare  figure  ;  his  complexion  and  the  ex- 
pression of  his  features  markedly  Italian  ;  the  fire  of  his  dark 
eyes  was  toned  down  by  the  blandness  and  sedateness  of 
his  manner.  His  mode  of  life  was  very  simple.  He  was 
alike  averse  to  riotous  amusements  and  to  etiquette.  His 
temperament  was  decidedly  melancholy.  In  his  old  age  he 
suffered  severely  from  haemorrhoidal  complaints.  Monte- 
cuculi, however,  was  not  only  a  hero  in  war,  and  a  thoroughly 
scientific  military  commander,  but  likewise  a  very  well-read 
theologian,  philosopher,  naturalist,  and  jurist;  in  fact,  a  states- 
man of  universal  genius.  Pacichelli,  during  his  stay  at 
Vienna,  often  saw  him  at  his  library,  where  he  had  many  an 
argument  with  him.  He  states  that  the  generalissimo  had 
always  about  him  the  great  work  on  theology  by  P.  Gonet,  a 
professor  of  Bordeaux ;  the  mystic  theological  writings  of  the 
celebrated  Englishman,  Robert  Flood,  physician,  alchemist, 
and  Rosicrucian,  he  was  able  to  recite  word  for  word.  He 
was  president  of  the  Society  of  Natural  Philosophers.  His 
power  of  oratory  was  of  the  highest  order,  and  supported  by 
his  extraordinary  memory.  He  made  verses ;  several  sonnets 
of  his  have  been  preserved.  He  possessed  at  Vienna  an  ex- 
tensive library ;  his  picture  gallery,  which  contained  the  finest 
pieces,  served  at  the  same  time  as  his  domestic  chapel ;  and 
he  had  a  beautiful  garden  near  his  palace.  In  1658,  at  the 
age  of  fifty,  he  married  the  beautiful  sister  of  Prince  Dietrich- 
stein,  at  that  time  in  her  twenty-first  year,  who  bore  to  him 
a  son  and  three  daughters.  The  son  became  privy  councillor, 
a  field-marshal,  and  captain  of  the  guard  of  halberdiers.  The 
daughters,  according  to  Pacichelli,  were  the  most  lively  and 
eccentric  persons  of  the  whole  court  of  Vienna.  From  one 
of  them  the  still  flourishing  princely  house  of  Rosenberg  is 
descended.  The  Princess  Montecuculi  died  of  small-pox  in 
1676,  two  years  before  her  husband. 

The  first  man  in  the  Emperor's  council  was,  after  Monte- 
cuculi, Count  George  Louis  von  Sinzendorf.  He  was  a  scion 
of  the  younger  branch  of  that  house  to  which  the  well-known 
bishop  of  the  Moravian  brethren  belonged.^     He  began  his 

1  The  branch  of  the  Bishop  of  Herrnhut  spelled  their  name  Zinzendorf. 
Both  branches  became  extinct  in  the  beginning  of  the  present  century. 


SINZENDORF  435 

career  as  chamberlain  to  Ferdinand  III.  and  as  a  councillor 
of  the  Aulic  chamber.  In  1653  Sinzendorf,  who  had  been 
steadily  progressing  on  the  way  to  offices  and  honours,  be- 
came a  convert  to  Popery.  At  the  accession  of  Leopold,  in 
1657,  he  was  raised  to  the  important  post  of  president  of  the 
Aulic  chamber  (lord  treasurer) ;  besides  which  the  Emperor 
conferred  upon  him  the  government  of  the  Tyrol,  which  in 
i665  reverted  to  the  crown. 

When  Sinzendorf,  a  younger  son  of  a  younger  branch, 
was  appointed  president,  his  private  fortune  amounted  to  not 
more  than  20,000  rix-thalers,  but  afterwards  it  increased  so 
vastly  that  he  is  said  to  have  paid  60,000  thalers  for  a  set  of 
pearls  for  his  second  wife,  who,  it  is  true,  was  of  princely 
birth.  Duchess  Dorothea  Elizabeth  of  Holstein-Sonderburg- 
Wiesenburg  sprang  from  an  ancient  house,  which  was,  how- 
ever, much  impoverished  by  the  division  of  the  family  pro- 
perty. She  was  likewise  a  convert  to  Popery,  and  became,  at 
the  age  of  sixteen,  in  1671,  the  second  wife  of  the  president ; 
his  first  wife  having  been  a  Protestant  of  the  zealously 
Lutheran  family  of  the  Jörgers. 

According  to  old  custom,  Sinzendorf,  through  whose  hands 
all  the  revenue  of  the  State  passed,  enjoyed  the  privilege  of  ren- 
dering no  account  of  the  public  expenditure.  "The  Austrian  lords," 
Esaias  von  Puffendorf  says,  "  have  long  since  deluded  their 
sovereigns  into  the  belief  that  the  care  of  the  financial  con- 
cerns was  derogatory  to  their  imperial  dignity  and  grandeur,  and, 
besides,  was  very  harassing  and  burdensome  ;  and  that,  therefore,  the 
sovereign  shoidd  leave  these  affairs  completely  and  absolutely  to  those 
whose  business  they  were  ;  that,  in  short,  in  these  matters  they  ought 
to  see  with  the  eyes  of  others."  Protected  by  this  most  excep- 
tional of  all  privileges,  Sinzendorf  took  good  care,  whilst 
working  for  the  imperial  finances,  to  work  at  the  same  time 
for  himself:  he  bought  estates  and  lordships  one  after  the 
other.  Yet  this  was  only  one  of  his  ways  of  accumulating 
wealth.  At  one  of  his  estates  at  Neuburg  he  openly  and 
unblushingly  carried  on  the  nefarious  trade  of  manufacturing 
counterfeit  money.  Buying  good  Bavarian  groats  by  thou- 
sands, he  re-issued  them  as  bad  five-groat  pieces.  It  was  of 
no  avail  that  the  Bavarian  government  complained,  Sinzen- 
dorf went  on  with  his  precious  trade  just  the  same.     Nay, 

28—2 


436  LEOPOLD    I. 

the  president  went  so  far  in  his  effrontery  as  to  set  up  before 
his  mint  of  counterfeit  coin  at  Neuburg  the  stone  statue  of 
the  Virgin,  which,  before  exchanging  it  for  a  bronze  one,  the 
Jesuits  had  had  in  front  of  the  college  of  their  order  at  Vienna. 
There  was  in  fact  no  kind  of  industrial  speculation  in  which 
the  president  would  not  engage  ;  and  in  all  of  them  he  either 
cheated  and  then  persecuted  his  partners,  or  allowed  them 
for  their  benefit  and  his  to  cheat  the  shareholders  and  the 
public.  He  was  on  particularly  good  terms  with  the  Jews, 
who,  since  the  days  of  Ferdinand  II.,  had  become  the 
favourite  money-brokers  of  the  house  of  Austria,  and  yet, 
in  1670,  in  consequence  of  some  riots  of  the  populace  against 
them,  had  been  removed  from  Vienna.  The  president  soon 
relaxed  this  prohibition,  and  in  1675  some  rich  Israelites 
from  Amsterdam  came  to  Vienna,  and  remained  several  days 
concealed  in  Sinzendorf's  garden.  They  were  said  to  have 
offered,  as  the  price  of  their  re-admission,  to  raise  ten  regi- 
ments of  horse  and  foot,  and  also  to  maintain  them  for  a 
certain  time. 

Of  all  these  fraudulent  practices  of  the  president,  the 
Emperor  Leopold  neither  saw  nor  heard  anything ;  and 
Sinzendorf  continued  to  enjoy  the  highest  favour  with  his 
Majesty.  Things  went  on  smoothly  and  brilliantly  until 
1679,  the  year  of  the  peace  of  Nimeguen.  This  peace,  as 
is  well  known,  was  concluded  in  spite  of  the  protest  of  the 
Emperor's  faithful  ally,  Brandenburg,  which  the  court  of 
Vienna  then,  for  the  first  time,  perfidiously  left  in  the  lurch ; 
and  the  sole  reason  of  its  being  hurried  on  in  such  an  ex- 
traordinary manner  was  that  the  gentlemen  in  Vienna  wished 
the  public  money  to  be  tied  up  no  longer  by  the  expenses 
of  the  war.  This  was  especially  manifest  when,  immediately 
after  the  conclusion  of  the  peace,  the  army  was  reduced  to 
such  an  extent  that,  as  the  "  Frankfort  Relations  "  expresses 
it,  "  many  persons  learned  in  war  (Montecuculi,  &c.)  were 
greatly  astonished  at  it."  The  old  practised  veterans  were 
discharged,  and  the  consequences  were  most  signal ;  war 
being  then  threatened  by  the  Turks,  and  also  by  Branden- 
burg, on  account  of  its  claims  to  the  Silesian  principalities. 
France,   moreover,   annexed  in    1680,   one    year  after   that 


SINZENDORF  437 

untoward  peace,  the  whole  of  Alsace;  and  in  1681  even 
took  Strassbur^,  the  key  of  Southern  Germany.  The  dis- 
content, which  now  became  too  loud,  at  last  led  to  Sinzen- 
dorf's  downfall. 

The  crash  which,  however  recklessly  he  was  going  on, 
he  had  so  long  warded  off,  came  from  Bohemia.  A  former 
attempt  to  bring  him  to  account  for  his  dealings  as  president 
of  the  chamber  (treasury)  of  that  country  had  been  foiled 
by  Lobkowitz,  who  at  that  tinie  was  still  prime  minister. 
Sinzendorf  had  suggested  to  Lobkowitz  the  way  in  which  he 
might  revive  an  old  claim  of  his  family  to  a  sum  of  not  less 
than  200,000  florins.  Lobkowitz  entered  into  it,  took  the 
steps  which  were  pointed  out,  and  the  treasury  paid  the 
money  over  to  him.  This  happened  in  1672.  In  1679  the 
imperial  court  had  fled,  on  account  of  the  plague,  from  Vienna 
to  Pesth,  and  Sinzendorf  was  staying  there  with  the  Emperor, 
when  suddenly  he  was  suspended.  A  commission  for  his  trial 
was  appointed,  before  which,  notwithstanding  his  pleading 
the  privilege  of  not  having  to  render  any  account,  he  was 
arraigned  and  condemned.  Sentence  was  passed  on  the 
igth  of  June,  1680,  and  published  on  the  gth  of  October  at 
nine  in  the  morning,  in  the  presence  of  a  great  mass  of 
people  admitted  for  the  purpose,  at  the  house  of  Count 
Nostitz,  the  chairman  of  the  commission  :  he  was  condemned 
to  perpetual  imprisonment  and  to  the  confiscation  of  all  his 
estates. 

The  evidence  against  Sinzendorf  proved  a  defalcation 
amounting  to  nearly  twenty  tuns  of  gold.  The  crimes  laid 
to  his  charge  comprised  perjury,  theft,  and  fraud.  His  wife, 
the  duchess,  having  three  times  implored  mercy  for  him  on 
her  knees  before  the  Emperor,  some  of  his  estates  were  re- 
stored, in  order  that  he  might  live  in  retirement  in  one  of 
his  chateaux,  in  a  manner  suitable  to  his  rank.  Yet  scarcely 
a  year  bad  passed  after  his  conviction,  ere  he  succeeded  in 
procuring  an  imperial  ^'  absolutorium,"  by  virtue  of  which  he 
was  relieved  from  all  further  claims  of  the  treasury  against 
him,  a.nd  fully  acquitted.  A  residuary  claim  of  1,940,000  florins 
was  remitted  him,  and  he  was  allowed  to  take  up  his  resi- 
dence where  he  liked  in  the  imperial  hereditary  possessions, 


438  LEOPOLD     I. 

even  in  the  capital  itself.  There  he  died  on  the  14th  of 
December,  1681,  having  nearly  completed  his  sixty-sixth 
year.  He  is  said  to  have  left  in  his  will,  to  his  wife 
400,000  florins,  and  to  each  of  his  children  (a  son  and  two 
daughters),  100,000  florins. 

Four  years  previous  to  the  downfall  of  Lobkowitz,  in 
1670,  the  privy  councillor  Count  John  Adolphus  Schwart- 
zenberg  had  been  raised  to  the  post  of  president  of  the 
Imperial  Aulic  Council.  His  father  Count  Adam  Schwart- 
zenberg  was  that  minister  of  the  Elector  of  Brandenburg 
who  in  the  Thirty  Years'  War  did  the  Emperor  such  signal 
service.  Count  John  Adolphus,  owing  to  the  liberality  of 
that  Archduke  Leopold  William  who  held  so  many  church 
benefices,  had,  during  the  minority  of  Leopold  H.,  become 
one  of  the  richest  noblemen  at  the  Austrian  court.  The 
archduke  had  given  him,  in  particular,  from  the  Bohemian 
crown  domains,  the  large  estate  of  Wittingau,  near  Budweis, 
whose  celebrated  fish-ponds,  which  furnish  the  market  of 
Vienna  with  that  noted  dainty,  Bohemian  carp,  have  been 
a  rich  source  of  revenue  to  the  Princes  Schwartzenberg. 
He  had  in  1644  married  a  Countess  Starhemberg,  and  had 
been  the  archduke's  lord  steward  ever  since  1646.  After 
the  death  of  the  Emperor  Ferdinand  HL,  Schwartzenberg 
had  suggested  to  the  archduke  to  become  a  rival  candidate 
of  his  nephew  Leopold  for  the  imperial  crown  of  Germany, 
and,  moreover,  to  throw  up  the  government  of  the  Nether- 
lands— for  which  reason  he  was  neither  popular  with  Leopold 
nor  with  the  Spaniards.  Yet,  notwithstanding  this  unfavour- 
able disposition  against  him,  he  maintained  himself  in  a 
brilliant,  although  not  the  very  first  position  at  court.  He 
was  a  thorough  Austrian  aristocrat,  one  of  the  very  best 
specimens  of  his  class ;  and  Leopold,  who  was  forced  to 
respect  him,  even  raised  him  in  1671  to  the  rank  of  a  prince 
of  the  Empire. 

Schwartzenberg  kept  one  of  the  best  houses  in  Vienna ; 
but  he  was  such  a  good  manager  as  to  be  able,  regularly 
every  year,  to  lay  by  part  of  his  revenue.  With  these 
savings  he  purchased  a  number  of  estates,  especially  in 
Bohemia,  from   which    country  his    family  originally  came. 


HOCHER  439 

Their  real  name  was  Czernahora ;  and  only  as  late  as 
during  the  Hussite  wars  they  had  emigrated  to  Franconia, 
where  they  purchased  the  countship  of  Schwartzenberg. 

Prince  John  Adolphus  was  a  gentleman  of  very  stately 
presence  and  of  good  address,  and  moreover  a  man  of  great 
resolution  and  courage.  In  the  year  of  the  plague  (1679), 
when  so  many  cavaliers  fled  from  Vienna,  he  remained  and 
exerted  himself  in  a  most  praiseworthy  manner  for  the  people. 
But  he  was  very  difficult  to  deal  with  in  the  way  of  business. 
Puffendorf  states  that  people  use  to  call  him  "  doctorem 
perplexiatum  et  dubitatorem  perpetuum."  He  died  suddenly 
in  1683,  at  the  age  of  sixty-eight,  whilst  paying  a  visit  to 
Father  Sauter,  the  confessor  of  the  Empress,  at  Laxenburg  ; 
having  just  before  attended  a  sitting  of  the  privy  council. 

Besides  these  noble  lords,  an  upstart  "red-tapist,"  John 
Paul  Baron  Hocher,  the  first  Aulic  chancellor — a  man  who 
had  risen  from  the  rank  of  a  common  lawyer  to  that  of 
minister — exercised  the  greatest  influence  at  court.  He  was 
one  of  the  most  unblushing  tools  of  that  absolutism  which, 
having  been  first  hatched  during  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  has 
been  established  principally  by  him  on  a  quasi-lawful  basis, 
after  the  pattern  of  the  sophistry  which  served  in  lieu  of  law 
at  the  court  of  the  Byzantine  rulers.  Being  a  faithful  ally  of 
the  Jesuits,  and  consequently  a  friend  of  the  Spaniards,  and 
being  moreover  deep  in  the  confidence  of  the  Empress 
Claudia,  he  became  one  of  the  principal  agents  in  the  ruin  of 
Lobkowitz.  A  most  obscene  and  scurrilous  epigram,  casting 
on  the  Empress  the  imputations  alluded  to  before,  and  which 
was  said  to  have  been  found  among  the  papers  of  the  fallen 
premier,  was  very  likely  manufactured  by  Hocher  himself. 

Hocher,  this  "hard-boiled"  minister,  died  in  his  sixty- 
seventh  year  at  Vienna,  on  the  ist  of  March,  1683.  He  left  a 
fortune  of  more  than  1,000,000  florins,  a  sum  quite  fabulous 
for  those  times  and  for  a  man  of  his  extraction  and  position. 
He  had  no  male  heir. 

Among  the  most  influential  men  of  the  last  period  of 
Leopold's  reign,  we  must  not  omit  the  Jesuit  Father  Wolff. 
His  real  name  was  Baron  von  Lüdingshausen.  He  was  a 
native  of  Westphalia,  actual  privy  councillor,  and  employed 


440  LEOPOLD    I. 

in  many  secret  diplomatic  commissions  in  war  and  peace. 
To  the  Emperor  he  was  particularly  welcome,  owing  to  his 
most  agreeable  conversation.  He  was,  with  Prince  Eugene, 
the  principal  adviser  of  the  war  of  the  Spanish  succession, 
and  he  it  was  wlio  procured  the  royal  dignity  for  Prussia.  In  the 
interest  of  his  order  he  tried  to  win  the  favour  not  only  of  the 
new  Prussian  King,  but  also  of  the  Russian  Czar  Peter  the 
Great,  when  the  latter  came  on  a  visit  to  Vienna. 

3. — Wedding  festivities  at  the  marriage  of  Leopold  I.  with  the 
Spanish  Infanta,  1666 — The  great  equestrian  ballet  during 
the  carnival  of  1667. 

In  i666  Leopold  I.  celebrated  his  marriage  with  his  first 
wife,  the  Spanish  Infanta,  the  negotiations  concerning  which 
had  been  carried  on  for  some  time.  He  was  at  that  time  in 
his  twenty-seventh  year  ;  the  Infanta  Margareta  Theresa  had 
not  yet  completed  her  sixteenth. 

The  Infanta,  having  embarked  at  Barcelona,  landed  at 
Finale,  near  Genoa,  on  the  20th  of  August,  1666.  She  was 
accompanied  by  her  lord  steward,  the  Duke  of  Albuquerque, 
and  by  Cardinal  Colonna.  Here  she  was  received  by  the 
governor  of  Milan,  Don  Vincent  Gonzaga ;  and  by  Count 
MontecucuH,  who  had  been  sent  by  the  imperial  court  to 
meet  her,  and  who  presented  to  her  a  jewel  from  the  Emperor. 
The  journey  from  thence  to  Vienna  was  performed  with  the 
greatest  ease ;  it  lasted  more  than  three  months.  The 
Infanta  proceeded  by  Milan,  where  she  arrived  on  the  nth 
of  September ;  and  by  Brescia — where  the  republic  of  Venice 
complimented  her  by  an  envoy-extraordinary,  and  caused  her 
to  be  entertained  in  the  most  costly  manner  two  days — along 
the  Adige,  to  Roveredo.  At  this  place  she  was  to  change  her 
household ;  her  new  lord  steward  being  Prince  Ferdinand  of 
Dietrichstein.  The  Duke  of  Albuquerque  kissed  hands  on 
taking  leave,  on  the  19th  of  October,  and  had  on  the  same 
evening  to  return  with  the  whole  of  the  Spanish  suite  to  the 
next  village.  The  young  Count  Lamberg,  as  newly  appointed 
chamberlain  of  the  Infanta,  states,  among  other  things,  that 
at  the  exchange  the  Duke  of  Albuquerque  had,  according  to 


WEDDING     FESTIVITIES  44I 

custom,  received  from  the  plate  of  the  imperial  bride  "several 
small  silver  chairs  and  tables,  forty  dozen  dishes,  seventy 
dozen  plates,  and  all  her  other  table  service."  ^  Lamberg,  at 
the  next  fete  of  the  Emperor,  on  the  15th  of  November, 
brought  to  the  Emperor,  as  a  present  from  the  future 
Empress,  a  diamond  ring,  valued  at  150,000  florins,  and  a 
chess-board  and  men  of  gold  studded  with  diamonds,  of  the 
value  of  6,000  ducats.  The  Emperor,  on  the  26th  of 
November,  surprised  the  Infanta  at  Schottwien,  where  he  at 
once  made  his  appearance,  and  made  himself  known,  whilst 
the  cavahers  were  admitted  to  the  princess  to  kiss  hands. 
When  he  took  leave,  his  royal  bride  presented  him  with  a 
band  for  his  hat,  with  a  precious  jewel  appended  worth 
upwards  of  12,000  rix-thalers;  "but,  as  it  had  not  been 
properly  fixed,  and  his  Majesty  had  ridden  back  in  great  haste 
to  Neustadt  and  repeatedly  doffed  his  hat,  it  was  lost  on  the 
road,  but  found  again  by  a  butcher,  and  returned,  with,  how- 
ever, three  stones  missing,  to  his  Majesty  on  the  following 
day,  when  he  came  back  to  Vienna ;  at  which  recovery  his 
Imperial  Majesty  was  not  a  little  rejoiced." 

The  entry  of  the  Infanta  into  Vienna  took  place  on  the 
5th  of  December  with  a  pomp  which  afforded  to  the  court 
historians  of  the  time  a  most  fruitful  theme  for  gorgeous 
details.  In  an  old  woodcut,  Leopold  appears  in  a  Spanish 
mantle  and  plumed  hat,  wearing  a  flowing  wig  ä  la  Fontange, 
with  collar  and  frill  of  point  lace  a  la  Van  Dyke,  and  moustache 
and  beard  on  the  chin  ä  la  Henry  IV.  His  Roman  Imperial 
Majesty  is  riding  under  a  canopy  carried  by  some  of  the  prin- 
cipal burghers  of  Vienna. 

Her  Imperial  Majesty  the  bride  rode  "  in  a  golden  carriage 
made  in  the  most  costly  and  cunning  fashion."  It  cost  nearly 
100,000  rix-thalers  (about  ;^i5,ooo  sterling),  and,  like  all  the 
state  carriages  of  that  period,  was  very  long,  and  covered  with 
a  roof  similar  to  a  pavilion.  It  was  drawn  by  six  horses ;  the 
Infanta  sitting  far  back,  and  opposite  to  her,  in  front,  her  first 
lady  of  the  bedchamber.  The  horses  deserve  particular 
notice ;  they  were  six  cream-coloured  steeds,  with  long  white 

1  The  Duke,  being  afterwards  sent  as  viceroy  to  Sicily,  lost  in  a  storm 
two  plate-chests  containing  from  seven  to  eight  hundredweight  o£  silver. 


442 


LEOPOLD     I. 


manes — a  present  from  Count  Antony  of  Oldenburg,  whose 
stud  of  more  than  1,500  horses  was  celebrated  all  over 
Europe. 

This  magnificent  procession  took  three  hours  in  passing 
through  the  illuminated  city  to  the  church  of  the  Augustines  ; 
there  the  bridal  pair  alighted,  and,  after  praying  in  the  chapel 
of  St.  Maria  of  Loretto,  they  went  to  the  high  altar,  where 
Cardinal  Count  Harrach,  the  papal  nuncio,  attended  by  all 
the  prelates  present  in  the  city,  pronounced  the  nuptial  bene- 
diction, the  ceremony  having  been  previously  performed  by 
proxy  at  Madrid.  The  imperial  bride  and  bridegroom  then 
sat  down,  at  nine  o'clock  in  the  evening,  to  supper,  with  the 
empress-dowager  and  the  two  imperial  princesses,  in  the 
large  hall  of  the  imperial  palace ;  remaining  until  one  o'clock, 
when  all  retired  to  rest. 

Of  the  festivities  in  honour  of  the  wedding,  particular 
mention  is  due  to  some  magnificent  fireworks,  accompanied  by 
a  grand  mythologico-symbolic  representation  on  the  Bastion 
(Bastei),  near  the  imperial  palace,  the  Hofburg.  The  pro- 
gramme of  this  most  remarkable  pageant  is  given  in  the 
"  Frankfort  Relations."  On  the  large  flat  plain  where  the 
exhibition  took  place,  two  artificial  mountains  sixty  feet 
high  were  raised ;  on  the  left,  Etna,  the  forge  of  Vulcan,  the 
artificer  of  the  weapons  of  war ;  on  the  right,  Parnassus,  with 
the  nine  Muses,  all  of  them  in  flowing  wigs  and  hoop  petti- 
coats, with  the  winged  Pegasus  at  the  summit.  Between 
these  two  mountains,  Etna  and  Parnassus,  was  the  scaffolding 
for  the  fireworks ;  in  the  background  a  temple  surmounted  by 
the  imperial  eagle. 

"  Introduction.  Scene  i. — Enter  Mercury,  with  the  nuptial 
torch,  to  announce  to  the  world  the  blaze  of  triumph  kindled 
on  Mount  Olympus  at  the  wedding  of  the  Emperor  of  the 
Romans.  The  Emperor  himself  from  a  window  of  the  palace 
lights  this  nuptial  torch ;  whereupon  five  hundred  rising  fires 
symbolically  represent  '  the  universal  blaze  of  triumph  of  the 
whole  world.' 

"  Scene  2. — In  token  of  the  whole  world's  really  being  one 
blaze  of  triumph,  thirty  guns  of  large  and  small  caUbre  are 
fired  from  the  nearest  bastions,  and  the  trumpets  and  kettle- 


MAGNIFICENT    FIREWORKS  443 

drums  sound  from  all  the  orchestras."  These  thirty  salutes 
were  the  signal  for  the  beginning  of  the  actual  fireworks,  which 
had  three  acts  of  three  scenes  each. 

"Act  I.  Scene  i. — Mount  Etna  is  kindling.  One  sees 
the  threefold  hell  of  Vulcan,  who,  with  his  assistants,  is 
forging  arms. 

"Scene  2. — Cupid  flies  through  the  air  into  the  forge, 
expels  its  inmates,  breaks  the  weapons,  and  then  hammers 
out  the  golden  wedding-ring.  Having  finished  his  task,  he 
carries  it  through  the  air  to  heaven,  there  to  deposit  it  in 
the  treasury  of  perpetual  bliss. 

"Scene  3. — The  double-peaked  Mount  Parnassus  appears 
blazing  in  flames  of  joy.  The  nine  goddesses  make  sweet 
music  to  attest  their  approval  of  the  act  performed  by  Cupid. 
The  whole  mountain  is  then  lit  up  with  bonfires  amidst  the 
sound  of  trumpets  and  kettledrums. 

"Act  II.  Scene  i.  —  On  the  space  between  the  two 
mountains  two  gateways  are  seen,  each  surmounted  by  a 
heart  with  the  letters  L.  and  M.  (Leopold  and  Margareta). 
The  god  Hymen  lights  them  in  pure  white  flames. 

"  Scene  2. — Centaurs  with  burning  torches  come  from 
Mount  Etna ;  Hercules,  at  the  command  of  Jupiter,  makes 
head  against  them,  and  drives  them  in  brave  pursuit  from 
the  field. 

"Scene  3. — On  the  right  is  seen  the  archducal  house  of 
Austria  as  a  strong  tower ;  on  the  left  the  Spanish  castle, 
in  allusion  to  the  arms  of  Spain.  From  each  of  these  large 
towers,  surmounted  by  the  letters  V.  A.,  V.  H.  (Vivat  Austria, 
vivat  Hispania),  a  thousand  rockets  rise ;  and  on  each  side  a 
hundred  salutes  are  fired  from  small  mortars.  The  fire-balls 
shot  from  the  mortars  explode  in  the  air  with  several  thousand 
reports,  after  which  the  letters  V.  L.,  V.  M.  [Vivat  Leopoldiis, 
vivat  Margareta)  are  seen.  Flourish  of  trumpets  and  roll  of 
kettledrums. 

"Act  III.  Scene  i. — In  the  background  of  the  large  space 
is  seen  the  Temple  of  Hymen  with  twenty-seven  pillars,  and 
on  the  roof  thirty-nine  statues,  with  thirty-three  pyramids  of 
dazzling  fire.  Jupiter  sends  his  eagle  from  the  clouds  to  light 
on  the  altar  of  the  temple  the  flames  of  joy. 


444 


LEOPOLD     I. 


"  Scene  2. — The  Phoenix,  consuming  himself  from  love  for 
his  young,  appears  in  flames  above  the  temple."  As  the 
flames  of  joy  were  meant  to  represent  the  flames  of  the  most 
humble  offering  of  submission  on  the  side  of  the  faithful  and 
obedient  subjects  on  the  altar  of  patriotism,  so  the  miraculous 
bird  was  to  appear  as  a  symbol  of  the  provident  care  and 
affection  of  his  Imperial  Majesty  for  his  most  humble  and 
obedient  vassals  and  subjects. 

"  Scene  3. — From  all  the  pillars,  statues,  and  pyramids  of 
the  Hymeneal  Temple  there  rise  73,000  lights,  with  at  least 
300  rockets,  each  charged  with  three  pounds  of  powder.  The 
letters  A.  E.  I.  O.  U.  {Austria  evit  in  omne  Ultimum)  float  in  the 
air.  From  the  mortars  ten  large  triumphal  balls  are  shot." 
Some  of  them  had  the  calibre  of  200,  and  the  others  of  300 
pounds,  and  made  themselves  heard  in  the  air  with  several 
thousand  explosions.  Moreover,  thirty  great  rockets  rose  in 
the  air — ten  of  the  weight  of  50  pounds,  ten  of  100,  and 
ten  of  150. 

Thirty  shots  from  guns  of  large  cahbre  marked  the  con- 
clusion of  these  most  ingenious  and  costly  fireworks ;  the 
author  of  which  is  said  to  be  Bartholomew  Peissker,  master 
of  the  arsenal  of  the  fortress  of  Glatz. 

The  whole  winter  passed  in  festivities.  The  crown  of  all 
was  the  equestrian  ballet,  which  after  several  rehearsals, 
was  performed,  on  the  24th  of  January,  1667,  in  a  wooden 
building  as  high  as  a  tower,  which  had  been  erected  for  the 
purpose  in  the  large  space  before  the  Hofburg.  The  perfor- 
mance lasted  from  one  o'clock  to  five  in  the  afternoon,  and 
was  repeated  with  some  omissions  on  the  31st  of  that  month. 
In  the  first  representation  the  Emperor  himself  took  a  part. 
Thirty  cannon-shots,  as  at  the  fireworks,  were  the  signal  for 
commencing.  The  two  Empresses  witnessed  the  spectacle 
from  one  window,  and  the  two  princesses  from  another  in  the 
apartments  of  the  Empress,  the  windows  being  surmounted 
by  a  canopy  of  gold  brocade,  and  pieces  of  gold  cloth  spread 
over  the  sills,  and  hanging  down  in  front. 

The  pageant  was  opened  by  the  Goddess  of  Fame,  dressed 
in  white,  standing,  with  a  trumpet  in  her  hand,  on  the  poop  of 
a  ship.     The  vessel  was  a  large  Turkish  galley,  painted  red 


PRELUDE    TO    THE    EQUESTRIAN     BALLET  445 

and  gilded  profusely,  with  a  crew  dressed  in  red  with  gold 
lace,  in  the  costume  of  Turkish  galley-slaves.  The  masts, 
rigging,  and  flags  were  likewise  red.  A  band  of  music  was 
playing  on  the  deck,  and  the  ship  was  surrounded  by  forty 
Tritons.  The  Goddess  of  Fame  addressed  the  Empress  in  a 
speech.  The  ship  resting  on  a  kind  of  truck  was  drawn  for 
some  time  round  the  arena ;  but  the  burden  being  too  heavy, 
the  wheels  broke,  so  that  at  the  repetition  on  the  31st  of 
January,  the  galley  was  found  to  be  disabled. 

After  a  flourish  of  trumpets,  the  prelude  to  the  equestrian 
ballet  now  began.  It  was  a  mythologico-symbolic  repre- 
sentation, purposing  to  exhibit  the  contest  of  the  four 
Elements  "  as  to  which  of  the  four  had  a  better  claim  to 
produce  pearls;^*  an  ingenious  allusion  to  the  name  of  the 
imperial  bride  Margareta.  The  four  Elements  were  repre- 
sented by  four  troops,  companies,  or  squadrons,  each  con- 
sisting of  a  considerable  number  of  persons.  There  were 
upwards  of  a  thousand  performers  engaged  in  it.  The  author 
of  the  programme  received  from  his  grateful  Emperor,  "  for 
well-devised  invention,"  20,000  florins,  as  a  reward  for  his 
trouble  ;  also  a  yearly  pension  of  1,000  florins ;  besides  which 
he  was  raised  to  the  rank  of  a  baron. 

1.  The  first  company  was  the  company  of  Water,  com- 
manded by  the  Count  Palatine  of  Sulzbach.  The  persons 
composing  it  were  dressed  in  blue  and  silver,  and  wore  fish- 
scales  and  shells  on  their  clothes. 

2.  The  second  was  the  company  of  Earth,  commanded  by 
the  master  of  the  horse,  Dietrichstein.  Their  clothes  of  green 
and  siFver  were  sprinkled  with  roses  and  other  flowers. 

3.  The  third,  the  company  of  Air,  commanded  by  the  Duke 
of  Lorraine,  had  clothes  of  gold  brocade  shaded  with  "  the 
colour  of  Aurora,"  and  trimmed  with  those  of  the  rainbow. 

4.  The  company  of  Fire  was  to  have  been  commanded  by 
Montecuculi;  but,  owing  to  his  being  indisposed,  his  place 
was  taken  by  some  one  else.  The  persons  belonging  to  it 
wore  dresses  of  red  and  silver,  decorated  with  flames. 

The  procession  was  headed  by  the  horsemen  of  the  Water 
Squadron;  behind  them,  on  a  huge  car,  was  a  colossal  whale, 
spouting  a  considerable  volume  of  the  watery  element  from 


446  LEOPOLD    I. 

his  mouth  and  nostrils.  On  his  back  rode  Neptune  with  his 
trident.  He  was  surrounded  by  all  kinds  of  marine  monsters 
holding  fireworks  in  their  hands,  together  with  tridents,  and  a 
chorus  of  thirty  persons  personating  the  "  Winds,"  who,  like 
Neptune,  held  tridents. 

Then  followed  the  squadron  of  Earth,  and  behind  it,  on 
another  large  car,  two  huge  elephants  carrying  on  their  backs 
castles  on  which  the  Earth  rested.  The  car  itself  represented 
a  garden  in  which  the  sylvan  god  Pan  was  sitting  with  his 
herdsmen,  who  carried  on  their  shoulders  large  clubs,  which 
were  afterwards  to  be  burned  to  illuminate  the  vast  building. 
Besides  a  host  of  those  mythical  characters  which  are  said  to 
dwell  in  the  earth,  there  was  on  the  car  a  singer,  who  for  some 
time  sang  in  Italian  the  praises  of  the  Empress. 

After  this  followed  the  cavalcade  of  the  squadron  of  Air, 
and  behind  them,  on  a  car,  the  Air  riding  on  a  terrible  dragon, 
and  surrounded  by  a  flock  of  all  sorts  of  birds  and  by  thirty 
griffins  which,  being  covered  with  gold  cloth,  carried  in  their 
paws  burning  fires.  Over  the  car  there  was  a  rainbow,  on 
which  sat  another  singer,  likewise  singing  in  Italian  the 
praises  of  the  Empress. 

The  rear  was  brought  up  by  the  cavalcade  of  the  Fire 
squadron,  with  silver  hammers,  escorting  a  machine  with  a 
colossal  flame  of  fire,  and  in  the  midst  of  it  the  imperishable 
salamander,  from  the  mouth  of  which  the  prettiest  fireworks 
were  issuing.  This  squadron  was  joined  by  the  car  of  Etna, 
spouting  fire,  and  on  it  the  god  Vulcan,  Hkewise  with  a  silver 
hammer,  and  dressed  in  a  flesh-coloured  and  black  suit.. 
There  were  walking  by  his  side  thirty  Cyclops  with  silver 
hammers,  and  a  bevy  of  small  Cupids. 

The  different  divisions  having  carried  on  a  smart  dispute, 
another  tremendous  flourish  of  trumpets  with  kettledrums 
resounded,  and  the  challenge  was  given.  The  theatre  then 
changed  into  a  ship  in  which  the  Argonauts  sat,  with  a  golden 
fleece  by  the  side  of  an  imperial  crown  ;  and,  whilst  a  brisk 
contest  was  being  carried  on  for  this  rich  prize,  the  sky  was 
illuminated,  and  a  small  cloud  arose  which  gradually  expanded 
in  the  horizon. 

As  soon  as  the  cloud  had  separated  there  appeared  in  sight 


EQUESTRIAN     BALLET  447 

a  large  star-spangled  globe,  and  over  it  Immortality  sitting  on 
a  rainbow  as  an  emblem  of  peace.  The  genius  bade  the 
cavaliers  not  to  fight,  intimating  to  them  that  there  was  no 
need  to  wrest  from  the  elements  the  two  guerdons  of  the 
Fleece  and  of  the  Crown,  as  they  had  from  the  beginning 
of  time  been  destined  for  the  house  of  Austria.  The  globe 
then  opened  and  displayed  the  Temple  of  Immortality,  with 
the  figures  of  the  fifteen  deceased  Emperors  of  the  house  of 
Austria,  all  of  them  mounted  on  stately  horses  and  arrayed 
in  gorgeous  robes.  These  figures  approached  the  temple 
preceding  the  car  of  Glory,  which  was  in  the  shape  of  a 
silver  shell,  with  a  magnificent  colossal  pearl  lying  in  it.  The 
shell  besides  exhibited  the  portrait  of  the  Empress,  and  carried 
the  figure  of  the  Emperor  Leopold  as  the  sixteenth  Caesar  of 
the  house  of  Austria.  This  car  was  followed  by  three  others 
with  captive  Indians,  Tartars,  and  Moors. 

The  stage  being  cleared  of  all  the  cars,  the  equestrian 
ballet  began.  It  was  likewise  divided  into  four  troops,  con- 
sisting each  of  eight  cavaliers  riding  together  in  pairs ; 
between  every  two  pairs  a  file  of  twelve  attendant  squires. 
The  cavaliers  of  all  the  four  troops  had  boots  of  silvered 
leather ;  those  of  the  Emperor  alone  were  gilt.  They  now 
began  the  contest,  each  for  his  element,  with  pistols  and 
swords. 

The  scene  then  changed  again  into  a  sky  of  clouds  over  a 
triumphal  arch.  High  in  the  air  an  angel  sang  a  sweet  song ; 
six  cavaliers  came  forth  in  wide-flowing  robes  trimmed  with 
silver  point-lace  and  diamonds,  and  carrying  silver  arrows  in 
their  hands.  They  were  followed  by  the  Emperor  himself, 
surrounded  by  a  host  of  pages  clothed  in  gold  stuffs.  The 
Emperor  was  dressed  like  those  six  cavaliers,  only  that  he 
wore  on  his  dress  deeper  point-lace  and  a  larger  crown  on  his 
helmet.  Twelve  cavaliers  dressed  in  suits  of  white  point-lace 
followed  behind  the  Emperor.  Then  came  a  triumphal  car, 
which  was  drawn  by  eight  snow-white  horses,  and  on  which 
seven  singers  were  sitting  in  robes  studded  all  over  with 
precious  stones.  Having  made  the  round  once  the  car  stopped 
before  the  Empress,  and  the  singers  performed  most  delightful 
music. 


448  LEOPOLD     I. 

The  triumphal  car  being  removed  in  its  turn,  the  Emperor 
concluded  the  ballet.  From  the  cautious  expressions  of  the 
courtly  accounts,  it  seems  likely  that  a  little  accident 
happened  to  his  Majesty  ;  in  fact,  that  he  fell  from  his  horse. 
The  conclusion  was  again  marked  by  the  discharge  of  thirty 
guns. 

The  expenses  of  this  pageant  were  said  to  have  amounted 
to  90,000  florins  ;  an  enormous  sum  for  those  times.  To  the 
items  of  the  expenditure  for  the  gaieties  of  the  carnival  may 
be  added,  that  at  the  different  festivities  plate  was  purloined 
to  the  value  of  9,000  florins. 

The  Jews  of  Vienna  showed  their  loyalty  by  presenting 
the  Empress  with  a  beautiful  piece  of  plate  with  a  pretty  silver 
infant  on  it,  the  whole  weighing  about  fourteen  pounds.  This 
silver  baby  became  the  happy  omen  of  an  auspicious  event, 
which  happened  on  the  28th  of  September,  1667;  on  which 
day,  in  the  morning  between  seven  and  eight,  the  Empress 
was  delivered  of  a  son.  Count  Lamberg,  the  lord  chamber- 
lain, brought  the  first  news  of  it  to  the  Emperor,  who 
rewarded  the  messenger  with  15,000  florins.  On  the 
following  day,  the  Feast  of  St.  Michael,  the  christening  was 
performed  in  the  hall  of  the  new  Hofburg.  The  prince 
received  the  names  Ferdinand  Wenceslaus  Leopold  Joseph 
Michael  Elzearius  ;  the  sponsors  being  the  King  of  Spain 
and  the  Empress  Dowager,  the  Emperor  himself  standing 
proxy  for  the  king.  The  royal  infant,  however,  was  not 
destined  to  enjoy  a  long  life.  He  died  on  the  3rd  of  January, 
1668. 


LIST   OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 
MEMOIRS   OF  THE   COURT   OF  AUSTRIA 


VOLUME  I 

PAGE 

CHARLES   V,   EMPEROR    OF   GERMANY Fronts. 

LUTHER    AT    THE    DIET    OF    WORMS 48 

MAXIMILIAN    I    AND    ULRICH    VON    HÜTTEN 80 

CHARLES    V   AND   ANTHONY    FUGGER 160 

MARRIAGE    OF    HENRY    IV    AND    MARIE    DE    MEDICIS 2o8 

FERDINAND    II    AT    PRAGUE 288 


449 


X  H    10V/ 


mmmr 


'*^SHNRfG10NAi:LjBRABYJACIÜ 


